Folger Collections

A look at the virtual community of volunteer paleographers who work together to transcribe manuscripts in the Folger’s collection.

a guest post by Carla Cevasco While I started my Folger fellowship intending to research children’s foodways in the manuscript recipe book collection, I was surprised by how many hungry, eating, or even eaten children could be found in the…

Dr. Emma Poltrack shares items she presented on October 7, 2021 as an introduction to ‘Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch’ by Rivka Galchen.

There are moments when a song is the best way to convey an emotional message. Even though songs are mostly public things, they still can feel intensely personal. Popular songs in early modern England were sung in ballad form. At…

a guest post by Patricia Akhimie On my last visit to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Fall 2019 (a time that seems all too distant now) to conduct research for a new edition of Othello, I set myself the goal…

Assistant Curator of Collections Elizabeth deBold shares items related to Shakespeare’s sonnets, part of a presentation preceding the October 5 poetry reading with Diane Seuss and t’ai freedom ford.

Thanks for our many eagle-eyed readers and your attention to this month’s Crocodile Post. As several folks guessed, this is a French parody of Romeo and Juliet called Roméo et Paquette, published in 1773. This item is a new acquisition, purchased in…

Thank you for your insightful comments on our Crocodile Mystery, which I enjoyed reading as usual. My heartfelt thanks also to Andrew Hare, Supervisory East Asian Painting Conservator, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National…

Rachel B. Dankert, Learning and Engagement Librarian, shares items she presented on September 2, 2021 as an introduction to ‘We That Are Young’ by Preti Taneja.

A guest post by Mira Assaf Kafantaris Meghan Markle’s incorporation into the British monarchy, and her subsequent departure from it, has thrown into high relief the ideologies of whiteness at the heart of royal European traditions. Even though the symbolism…

Dr. Emma Poltrack shares items she presented on August 5, 2021 as an introduction to ‘The Last True Poets of the Sea’ by Julia Drake.

Following the path a worm chewed through an early modern letter.