The Folger’s collection is vast and varied, including printed books; manuscripts; prints, drawings, photographs, paintings, and other works of art; and a wealth of performance history, from playbills to films, recordings, and stage costumes.
In addition to the rare material collection, the Folger holds a collection of over 100,000 monographs, periodicals, and electronic resources published between the 1830s and the present, related to the understanding and interpretation of Shakespeare, his works and impact, and to the early modern world.
Printed Books
Manuscripts
Works of Art
Performance History
History of the collection
Henry Clay Folger and his wife, Emily Jordan Folger, began amassing the collection of rare books that would become the Folger Shakespeare Library in 1889. They spent decades gathering the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, as well as associated works from Shakespeare’s time. The Library itself opened in 1932, and continues to expand its holdings today.
Caring for our collections
Related blog posts
Explore some of the scholarly work being done with, in, and around our collections.
Adages and Annotations
In which a 16th century monk flips Erika off, and we all pick out our next tattoos
Semantics: Ars Minor or Ars Major?
Fellow Layla Zeitouni explains how the Term “Major” Allowed the Gutenberg Bible to Supersede the Donatus
Thomas Nashe’s Almond for a Parrat (1590), corrected by the author
Identifying handwritten corrections by the author Thomas Nashe in his own work, Almond for a Parrat
Color of Character: Racial Cues in the Visual Othello
A participant in the undergraduate seminar, Whose Sovereignty?, explores depictions of Othello in the Folger collection
Collection Connections: Magic and Mayhem in the Tudor Court: Juno Dawson's "Queen B"
We revisit Beth DeBold’s June 2025 presentation as part of our Folger Book Club discussion of Juno Dawson’s Queen B.