Folger Finds
Up Close: Lady Macbeth, America, and the stain of slavery
In a famous scene from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the sleep-walking Lady Macbeth desperately attempts to scrub her hands clean of the (invisible) blood stains from the murders committed by her and her husband. “Out, damned spot, out, I say!” she says,…
Collection Connections: 'Sweet Sorrow' by David Nicholls
Dr. Emma Poltrack shares items she presented on June 3, 2021 as an introduction to Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls.
Collection Connections: 'Circe' by Madeline Miller
Rachel B. Dankert, Learning and Engagement Librarian, shares items she presented on May 6, 2021 as an introduction to Circe by Madeline Miller.
Up Close: A 'Seven Ages of Man' painting
Take a closer look at a 19th-century oil painting in the Folger collection that depicts all seven ages of man from Jaques’s speech in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”
Collection Connections: 'A Bright Ray of Darkness'
Dr. Emma Poltrack shares the items she presented on April 1, 2021 as an introduction to ‘A Bright Ray of Darkness’ by Ethan Hawke.
Collection Connections: ‘Hag-Seed’
Dr. Emma Poltrack shares the Folger collection items she presented on March 4, 2021 as an introduction to ‘Hag-Seed’ by Margaret Atwood.
Up Close: The voodoo Macbeth that generated jobs for Black Americans during the Great Depression
A spectacular 1936 Federal Theatre Project production of “Macbeth” in New York City employed hundreds of black actors and theater technicians. It was financed by the Federal Theatre Project, a controversial part of the federal government’s New Deal programs to…
Collection Connections: ‘The Moor’s Account’
Rachel B. Dankert, Learning and Engagement Librarian, shares the Folger collection items she presented on February 4, 2021 as an introduction to ‘The Moor’s Account’ by Laila Lalami.
Up Close: Three scenes from Hamlet
Can you identify what’s happening in each of these three scenes from Hamlet? The drawings by British illustrator John Jellicoe are part of the Folger collection.
Collection Connections: ‘Hamnet’
Dr. Emma Poltrack shares the Folger collection items she presented on December 3, 2020 as an introduction to ‘Hamnet’ by Maggie O’Farrell.
Top 5 Folger Finds of 2020
Revisit the bright spots of 2020 by taking a look at some of our most popular #FolgerFinds posts on Instagram from the past year. Highlights from the Folger collection include a beautiful book binding, a striking costume design, and a…
Early modern sleep care: Recipes for restful sleep
Thomas Sheppey devoted several densely written pages of his 17th-century manuscript to the topic of sleep — how to trigger it, how to interrupt it, how to influence its depth and length, and even how to stop people talking in…