Folger Finds

Explore a set of early 19th-century watercolor portraits of Shakespearean heroines in the Folger collection.

See illustrations and costume designs by surrealist Salvador Dalí in the Folger Shakespeare Library collection for plays like “The Taming of the Shrew.”

Rafael Squirru and Juan Carlos Liberti collaborated to create this Argentine translation of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ with surrealist illustrations.

“The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World” by Margaret Cavendish has been called the first science-fiction novel written by a woman. Learn more about this book, which is part of the Folger collection.

Black actor J.A. Arneaux starred as the title character in the Astor Place Company’s production of Richard III and published his own 19th-century edition.

These books and documents from the Folger collection show the many ways an English coronation would be celebrated in the 16th and 17th centuries.

In this unconventional Christmas play from 1619, the characters are different foods warring against one another for pride of place at the holiday feast.

Lewis Carroll gave this lovely 1868 edition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” with delicate cut-paper images by Paul Konewka, to his illustrator for “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” John Tenniel.

Take a look at our five most popular #FolgerFinds posts on Instagram, from early modern eclipses to the first edition of Shakespeare’s “Richard III.”

Transparencies, popular in the late 1700s, use back-lighting to reveal a secret image. See one from the Folger collection that reveals Shakespeare’s ghost in Westminster Abbey.

Famous Shakespearean actress Ellen Terry (1847-1928) took the liberty of correcting certain biographical errors in a book about her friend Henry Irving.

Promptbooks let us peer into the minds of some of history’s greatest theater-makers and see how they imagined Shakespeare’s plays.