We invite visitors to enter the world of Elizabethan England and Shakespeare at Folger Shakespeare Library!
Docent-led tours offer visitors a chance to explore the library and glimpse the world-famous Folger collection in our Great Hall, including one of the Folger's 82 First Folios.
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A Folger Docent shares the First Folio with visitors.
Daily Walk-In Tours
Free docent-led tours are offered daily, with no reservation required:
- Monday through Saturday at 11 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm
- Sunday at 12 pm and 3 pm
Our daily tours are great for groups smaller than 15 guests. If the Folger is a later addition to your DC trip, please consider joining these tours if the times work with your schedule.
Other Tours
The Folger offers exhibition-focused tours of our current exhibition every Wednesday at 12 pm and Saturday at 2 pm. These are free and no reservation is required.
We also offer a limited number of collection-focused visits, and can arrange tours for classroom groups.
To request a Group Tour, please fill out our visit request form.
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The Gail Kern Paster Reading Room.
Tours of the Folger reading rooms
Scholars from all over the world come to the Folger reading rooms to use the Folger’s collection of Shakespeare and other early modern materials. We now offers guided tours of these famous rooms each Saturday. Visitors first see the Paster Reading Room (pictured at left), featuring Nicola d’Ascenzo’s famous stained glass window of the “Seven Ages of Man” and a bust of Shakespeare based on the one at his grave Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. Visitors then enter the Bond Reading Room to see portraits that may or may not be of Shakespeare.
We welcome visitors to tours of the reading rooms each Saturday from noon to 1 pm.
These tours are free, but advance reservations are required. Please request a tour reservation; reservations will be finalized with an email confirmation.
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Folger Shakespeare Library’s Elizabethan Garden.
Folger Shakespeare Library
Tours of the Elizabethan Garden
The Folger Elizabethan garden features plants and design inspired by Shakespeare’s plays, as well as statues by Gregg Wyatt.
Free docent-led tours take visitors into the outdoor world of Shakespeare’s time every Saturday, April through October at 10 am.
More Information
For more information, contact Greg Armstrong (garmstrong@folger.edu).
