Skip to main content
All 96 posts by

Erin Blake

is currently the Senior Cataloger responsible for art and manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library. From 2000 to 2014, Erin served as the Folger's Curator of Art and Special Collections. In 2014, she became Head of Collection Information Services. After a four-year tour of duty in senior management, she happily returned to working hands-on with the collection in 2018. In addition to her Folger work, Erin teaches The History of Printed Book Illustration in the West at Rare Book School, and is a member of the RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee.
Card catalog holder-opener
Catalog cards held open in drawer by a clear plastic wedge
Collation

Card catalog holder-opener

Posted
Author
Erin Blake

Erin Blake explains how to use a mystery object when examining the card catalog.

Charles T. Grilley and the Garrick letter
Collation

Charles T. Grilley and the Garrick letter

Posted
Author
Erin Blake

How Henry Folger acquired a David Garrick letter in our collection

Folger tooltips: "Narrow by collection" in the catalog
Collation

Folger tooltips: "Narrow by collection" in the catalog

Posted
Author
Erin Blake

Want to quickly narrow down your catalog search by collection? Learn how in this post.

Reattribution of M.a.11, An account of the many fine seats of noblemen &c. (1763)
Handwritten title page with simple hand-drawn decorative border
Collation

Reattribution of M.a.11, An account of the many fine seats of noblemen &c. (1763)

Posted
Author
Erin Blake

Sometimes, we get new information about one of our collection items. In this case, Erin explains how we came to re-attribute the authorship of Folger MS M.a.11.

Folger Tooltips: Exporting a spreadsheet of catalog data
Screenshot of detail from spreadsheet of bibliographic details
Collation

Folger Tooltips: Exporting a spreadsheet of catalog data

Posted
Author
Erin Blake

Tips on how to export data from the Folger catalog.

Notes for future reference
Collation

Notes for future reference

Posted
Author
Erin Blake

Do you ever leave notes to your self, to come back to later? Folger catalogers have a long history of doing this, as Erin Blake explains.

Twill tape, plus toggles, plus toggler, equals quick-ties
Collation

Twill tape, plus toggles, plus toggler, equals quick-ties

Posted
Author
Erin Blake
Frederick William MacMonnies, Shakespeare, circa 1895
Collation

Frederick William MacMonnies, Shakespeare, circa 1895

Posted
Author
Erin Blake

Thanks for the great guesses about the object shown in the September Crocodile Mystery! Dawn Kiilani Hoffmann got it right. The photo shows the bottom of the bronze Shakespeare sculpture at the foot of the stairs from the Reading Room.…

Happy Retirement, Hamnet!
Collation

Happy Retirement, Hamnet!

Posted
Author
Erin Blake

After over a quarter century of devoted bibliographic service, the time has come to bid farewell to Hamnet, the Folger Shakespeare Library’s first OPAC (“Online Public Access Catalog”). Hamnet officially retires tonight, at the end of the last day of…

Different versions of a print, or different states?
Collation

Different versions of a print, or different states?

Posted
Author
Erin Blake

When I began working on the March 1 Collation post about watchpapers, I saw right away I’d need to make a correction to the catalog record for Mr. Quin in the character of Sr. John Falstaff. Hamnet gave the publisher’s address…

18th-century watchpapers
Collation

18th-century watchpapers

Posted
Author
Erin Blake

Thanks for the great guesses about the March 2022 Crocodile Mystery! All were different, all were plausible, and all were incorrect. It would have been easier if I’d included other examples of the same type of print,  because they’re always…

George Goodwin, neo-Latin poet, identified as George Goodwin, rector of Moreton, Essex
Collation

George Goodwin, neo-Latin poet, identified as George Goodwin, rector of Moreton, Essex

Posted
Author
Erin Blake

Today’s Collation post is short and sweet, and courtesy of Heather Wolfe, the Folger’s Curator of Manuscripts. Heather is currently on sabbatical in the UK, having been awarded the 2021–22 Munby Fellowship at Cambridge University Library, but she still occasionally…

1 2 3 8