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Home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection. Advancing knowledge and the arts. Explore our collection with #FolgerFinds.

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Actor and activist Paul Robeson was born #OnThisDa Actor and activist Paul Robeson was born #OnThisDay, April 9, in 1898. Robeson's famous 1930 and 1943 productions of "Othello" made him the first Black man to play Othello with a mixed-race cast in over a century. His 1943 Broadway production of the play, directed by Margaret Webster and co-starring Uta Hagen, still holds the record for being the longest running Shakespeare revival on Broadway. Tap the link in our bio to learn more about Robeson, and to see costume designs, prompt books, and Robeson's contract for the shows, all from the Folger's collection. . From the Folger's collection: Robert Edmond Jones's costume design for Paul Robeson as Othello in the 1943 Broadway production (ink and gouache drawing with fabric swatches attached) (Folger ART Box J79 no.1). #LinkInBio #FolgerFinds
If you could rewrite the ending of one of Shakespe If you could rewrite the ending of one of Shakespeare's plays, which one would you pick? What would you change? . From the Folger's collection: "The Works of Shakespeare: Carefully Prepared from the Earliest and more Modern Editions." The editors of this edition write that its text has been "Selected, where commentators have differed as to the sense of obscured or doubtful passages, from those readings which the ablest critics believe to be the most Shakespearian and best suited to a popular edition; with illustrations." (Folger Folio PR2754 1q6 copy 2 Sh.Col.). #FolgerFinds #PublishersBindingThursday . . . #PublishersBinding #Book #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #SpecColl #SpecialCollections #LookAtThisBook #BookLover #Booklovers #Books #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #ShakespeareLover #TheatreKid #Theatre #Literature #Bookbinding
⚡⚡⚡ This Wednesday on the Shakespeare Lightn ⚡⚡⚡ This Wednesday on the Shakespeare Lightning Round, Paul Edmondson, Head of Learning and Research at @ShakespeareBTrust and co-editor of "All the Sonnets of Shakespeare," joins us to talk about the joys of reading Shakespeare's sonnets and answer our 30 lightning-fast Shakespeare questions. Tune in April 7 at noon EDT, live, right here on Instagram. ⚡⚡⚡ . Looking for more on the sonnets for National Poetry Month? Tap the link in our bio to read an excerpt from the introduction of Edmondson and Sir Stanley Wells's "All the Sonnets of Shakespeare." #LinkInBio #ShakespeareLightningRound
Five-sixths of the plays originally written and pe Five-sixths of the plays originally written and performed in early modern England—roughly 3,000 of them—are lost. On a new episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Lost Plays Database co-founder David McInnis explains how lost plays are the negative space that surrounds and shapes our knowledge of the drama that survives. Tap the link in our bio to listen to our interview. . 📸: From the @Illinois_rbml, a fragment of a Stationer's Account Book listing "Love's Labor's Won," a lost play, in a list of Shakespeare's other plays.
How well do you know Shakespeare's fools? Tap the How well do you know Shakespeare's fools? Tap the link in our bio to test your foolish faculties with an April Fools Day quiz. Then, tell us your score in the comments! #AprilFoolsDay . From our collection: a costume rendering for Touchstone in Shakespeare's "As You Like It" by Claud Lovat Fraser, 1918. Folger ART Box F848 no.1 (size L). #FolgerFinds
What's the best production of "Much Ado About Noth What's the best production of "Much Ado About Nothing" you've ever seen? Tell us in the comments! From our collection: a copy of composer Tikhon Khrennikov's incidental music for the Vakhtangov Theatre’s 1936 production of "Much Ado About Nothing." The music was published in 1939. This item, Folger Sh.Misc. 2199, was adopted by Melissa and Sean McKenna at the Folger's annual Acquisitions Night in 2014. #FolgerFinds . . . @vakhtangov_theatre #MuchAdoAboutNothing #MuchAdo #Shakespeare #ShakespeareLove #WilliamShakespeare #Theatre #Music #SpecColl #SpecialCollections #TheatreHistory
Tap the link in our bio to listen to the newest ep Tap the link in our bio to listen to the newest episode of Shakespeare Unlimited! Stephen Hopkins was a tavern keeper who may have lightly mutinied while shipwrecked in Bermuda in 1609. Did he inspire the character of Stephano, the drunken butler from "The Tempest?" We ask Hopkins's descendant, filmmaker Andrew Buckley of @hitandrunhistory. Buckley's documentary "Stephano: The True Story of Shakespeare's Shipwreck," traces his peripatetic ancestor's journeys on the ill-fated Sea Venture and the Mayflower. #LinkInBio #Podcast
Here's a bookbinding from our collection that make Here's a bookbinding from our collection that makes us think of spring! This book is a ca. 1684 copy of "The Interiour Christian..." (Folger B2045). #FolgerFinds . . . . #Book #Books #Bookbinding #specColl #SpecialCollections #Bookbinder #Bookstagram #Bookstagrammer #Bookworm #booklover #flowers #spring #springtime
From our collection: This French copy of "A Midsum From our collection: This French copy of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" featuring artist Pinckney Marcius-Simons's hand-painted illustrations on every page. This translation of the play ("Le Songe d'une Nuit d'Ete") was published in 1886. Marcius-Simons got his hands on it and covered its pages with watercolor paintings in 1908. This page features a translation of Act 3, scene 1, in which the Mechanicals meet in the woods for their rehearsal. Marcius-Simon's flowery extra-illustration features a depiction of Pyramus and Thisbe meeting by moonlight, with a lion lurking overhead (Folger ART Vol. a71). #FolgerFinds
"Lord, what fooles these mortals be!" Tap the link "Lord, what fooles these mortals be!" Tap the link in our bio to read the story of the Folger's famous statue of Puck, from its 1930 creation by sculptor Brenda Putnam to its much-needed restoration in the 1990s after decades of weather, vandalism, and an unfortunate high-fiving accident. #LinkInBio
From our collection: swipe to take a look at a man From our collection: swipe to take a look at a manuscript by French-Scottish calligrapher, illustrator, and bookbinder Esther Inglis (1571 - 1624). This 1600 book, "Octonaries Upon the Vanity and Inconsistency of the World," features Inglis's English translations of French poems by Antoine de Chandieu, along with Inglis's gorgeous flower designs. Inglis created dozens of these jewel-like little manuscripts over the course of her life, many of them dedicated to British royalty and members of European Protestant circles, writes Folger Associate Librarian and Head of Reference Emerita Georgianna Ziegler. Tap the link in our bio to visit Ziegler's website about the life and works of Inglis and to see some more of the great calligrapher's creations. (Folger v.a.91) #WomensHistoryMonth #FolgerFinds . . . #EstherInglis #Calligraphy #Illustration #ArtOnInstagram #IGLibraries #IGLibrary #LibrariesOfInstagram #Bookbinding #Bookbinder #Binding #Book #Bookstagram #Bookstagrammer #Bookworm
⚡ Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 10 at 5 pm ET, Afri ⚡ Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 10 at 5 pm ET, African-American Shakespeare Company Artistic Director L. Peter Callender (pictured here getting in the mood to play Richard III) joins us for a new episode of the Shakespeare Lightning Round live here on Instagram. Even during the pandemic, Callender has been busy acting and directing. We'll talk to him about his work and what's coming up from @aa_shakes... plus, he answers our 30 lightning-fast Shakespeare questions. Don't miss it. #ShakespeareLightningRound (Photo: Lance Huntley) ⚡
Huh. Still March. . From the Folger's collection: Huh. Still March. . From the Folger's collection: images of the actor Lawrence Barrett as Hamlet (left, ART File B274 no.10 PHOTO) and Lear (right, ART File B274 no.21 PHOTO). #FolgerFinds
Lil' Hamlet. From the Folger's James L. Harner Col Lil' Hamlet. From the Folger's James L. Harner Collection of Miniature Books Pertaining to Shakespeare, here's a tiny copy of "Hamlet" (along with its tiny neighbors on the shelf). #FolgerFinds #MiniatureBook . . . Har. 80. #Hamlet #Theatre #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #ShakespeareLove #MiniBook #Mini #Minature #Tiny #TinyBook #Bookstagram #BookLover #Bookwork #Book #Bookstagram #Literature
From the Folger's collection: an original illustra From the Folger's collection: an original illustration of a scene from "The Winter's Tale" by 19th-century architect, designer, and artist Owen Jones (Folger ART Vol c78). Jones was the author of several works on ornamental design and one of the forerunners in chromolithographic book illustration in England in the 1800s. #FolgerFinds
What's your favorite final line from a Shakespeare What's your favorite final line from a Shakespeare play? What's the best last scene from a Shakespeare play? From the Folger's collection, here are the last pages of "Romeo and Juliet," "Hamlet," and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as they appears in Shakespeare's First Folio, the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623 (STC 22273 Fo.1 no.68). . . . #Shakespeare #ShakespeareQuote #QuoteOfTheDay #WilliamShakespeare #Hamlet #Finis #Theatre #Theater #FirstFolio #FolgerFinds
On a new episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Dr. Fre On a new episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, Dr. Freda Scott Giles of @universityofga tells us about the Federal Theatre Project's all-Black "Voodoo" "Macbeth," "Swingin' the Dream," and how the artists and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance regarded Shakespeare. Directed by a young Orson Welles, "Macbeth" was one of 1936's biggest hits. It also secured work for hundreds of Black actors, technicians, and administrators, via the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Theatre Unit. But did "Macbeth" showcase Black expression, or co-opt it? Tap the link in our bio to listen to our interview with Dr. Giles. Plus, get up close and personal with a piece of history from the Folger's collection: a program from "Voodoo" "Macbeth." 📸: Maurice Ellis (New York Public Library), a scene from Act 2 of "Macbeth," actor Canada Lee as Banquo, Lafayette Theater marquee on opening night of "Macbeth" (Library of Congress American Memory Collection). @nypl @librarycongress #BlackHistoryMonth #LinkInBio . . . #BlackHistory #Theatre #Shakespeare #Theater #WilliamShakespeare #Macbeth #OrsonWelles #CanadaLee #VoodooMacbeth #HarlemRenaissance #TheatreLife #TheatreHistory
Happy #MardiGras from the Folger! With parades and Happy #MardiGras from the Folger! With parades and parties canceled in New Orleans this year, celebrants have decorated their homes like Mardi Gras floats. To join the socially-distanced fun, here's an 1898 poster from the Folger's collection. It features twenty Carnival floats representing Shakespeare's plays. Swipe to see a few favorites, then tap the link in our bio to see a few more. (Folger ART 268390). #FolgerFinds . . . #FatTuesday #LaissezLesBonTempsRouler #LetTheGoodTimesRoll #Carnival #NewOrleans #MardiGrasFloat #MystikCrewe #Comus #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #LibrariesOfInstagram #IGLibraries #MardiGras2021
"O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou... "O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou..." (Twelfth Night, 1.1). This Valentine's Day, say it with Shakespeare! Tap the link in our bio to download delightful Shakespearean Valentines like these and share them with your loved ones. Designs by @soleilnycdesign #ValentinesDay #Shakespeare #LinkInBio . . . . #WilliamShakespeare #valentine #valentines #love #QuoteOfTheDay #Quote #shakespearequotes #shakespearequote
❤️ Wondering what to say on Valentine's Day? T ❤️ Wondering what to say on Valentine's Day? Tap the link in our bio to read 20 of our favorite Shakespeare quotes about love. Then, take our quiz and find the perfect line for your Valentine. 💗 . From our collection: "In the Court of Love." Charles Robinson. From "The Songs and Sonnets of William Shakespeare." 1915? Folger PR2842 .A26 1915 Sh.Col.. #ValentinesDay #FolgerFinds #LinkInBio

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