Folger Collections

This solution to February’s Folger Mystery looks at how editors of A Midsummer Night’s Dream have dealt with the ambiguous presence of one its fairies.

In 1789, John Boydell opened a London gallery of paintings of Shakespeare scenes. It became a sensation, transforming Shakespeare into a national icon and elevating public art. Rosie Dias and Michael Dobson discuss its rise and fall.

Lingua Latina Medica Accessabilis Facta, vel Febrem Habeo et Præscriptio Sola Campanæ Bovinæ Plus Est or Medical Latin Made Accessible, or I Have a Fever and the Only Prescription is More (of) Cow Bell. A look into John Ward’s Latin list, a glossary of the medical Latin terms used by the 17th century vicar in his diaries.

Senior Photography Associate William Davis shares his five favorite collection items in our new series: Folger Faves.

Porras, a Folger Artist Fellow, shares what inspired him, from the Folger collection to Indigenous futurism, in the creation of his new media work, de Bry’s Slipstream.

Take a look at our top five Collation posts from 2025. Thanks for a great year!

Seventeenth century resonances in a twentieth century postcard sent from Jamaica.

“Do not seek pleasure in music and singing” and other advice for widows from an early 17th-century manuscript.

An examination of marginalia in the Folger’s 1593 The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia

Folger Artist Fellow Missy Dunaway shares what she’s learning while working on The Birds of Shakespeare, her project to paint the 65 birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s works.

We revisit Victoria M. Muñoz’s November 2025 presentation as part of our Folger Book Club discussion of Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires.

Looking at enslaved Black workers and the 1588 Spanish Armada’s afterlives in a 17th-century English miscellany