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All 68 posts by

Heather Wolfe

is Curator of Manuscripts at the Folger. She loves convincing people that they can read English secretary hand and sharing quirky and unexpected collection finds and stories.
Let's make a model!
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Let's make a model!

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Heather Wolfe Jana Dambrogio

Co-written by Heather Wolfe and Jana Dambrogio In 2010, Jana Dambrogio and I were thinking independently about slits and stabs in early modern letters. Jana, after having had made many models of the letters of Tomaso di Livieri from the…

Click-clack and crocodile tears: an annotated Elizabethan dictionary
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Click-clack and crocodile tears: an annotated Elizabethan dictionary

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Heather Wolfe

If dictionaries are still on your mind after reading in The Collation and elsewhere about the 1580 copy of John Baret’s Alvearie owned by George Koppelman and Dan Wechsler, then here’s another tri-lingual annotated dictionary to ponder: the intensively-annotated Folger copy of John…

Buzz or honey? Shakespeare's Beehive raises questions
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Buzz or honey? Shakespeare's Beehive raises questions

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Heather Wolfe Michael Witmore

Shakespeare’s birthday week begins with a bang: two New York booksellers, George Koppelman and Daniel Wechsler, announced that they have found Shakespeare’s dictionary. In their new book, Shakespeare’s Beehive, Koppelman and Wechsler present their reasons for believing that William Shakespeare…

Aphorism therapy, or, How to cope with dishonest relatives
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Aphorism therapy, or, How to cope with dishonest relatives

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Heather Wolfe

Poor Walter Bagot (1557-1622). A busy county official in Staffordshire and head of a large extended family with typically complicated financial arrangements, he was on the receiving end of a constant flow of requests, complaints, and excuses. Occasionally, these letters…

Where do family trees come from?
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Where do family trees come from?

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Heather Wolfe

Why is a tree coming out of this dozing man’s belly, you may ask. When I began working on the Folger’s next exhibition, Symbols of honor: Family history and genealogy in Shakespeare’s England (July 1 to October 26, 2014), I wondered…

An example of early modern English writing paper
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An example of early modern English writing paper

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Heather Wolfe

The crocodile posted on Friday was correctly identified by Philip Allfrey as a watermark of Queen Elizabeth’s arms encircled by the Garter. In his comments, Mr Allfrey provided a useful account of how he identified the watermark and the letter…

Unbidden guests, moldy pies, and other holiday drama
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Unbidden guests, moldy pies, and other holiday drama

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Heather Wolfe

As we enter the holiday season and look forward to spending time with our families and friends, it is of course always useful to take a moment to reflect upon the antics of other people’s families. Even better if those…

EMMO: Early Modern Manuscripts Online
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EMMO: Early Modern Manuscripts Online

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Heather Wolfe

The Folger is thrilled to share the news that we are the recipient of a generous three year National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to create Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO), an online searchable…

Pirates, hats, herring, and iron pots! The case of Captain Thomas Hubbard
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Pirates, hats, herring, and iron pots! The case of Captain Thomas Hubbard

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Heather Wolfe

When we get to “deposition day” in paleography class, one of the manuscripts that the students usually transcribe is Folger MS L.d.673, in which one John Bartholomew confesses to buying six iron pots, but no hats. Bartholomew states that he…

Don't try this at home (unless you are a professional brewer)
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Don't try this at home (unless you are a professional brewer)

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Heather Wolfe

Here’s a little transcription exercise for our Crocodile readers: Folger MS V.a.429, fol. 29r. This is the title of a recipe in a book of culinary and medical receipts compiled between approximately 1675 and 1750 by a few generations of…

Margents and All: Thomas Milles between manuscript and print
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Margents and All: Thomas Milles between manuscript and print

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Bill Sherman Heather Wolfe

Co-written by Heather Wolfe and Bill Sherman Thomas Milles’s motto, inscribed at the bottom of the title page in Columbia University’s copy of An Out-Port-Customers Accompt (STC 17935), as reproduced on EEBO. It appears in print on many of his…

Shakespeare's personal library, as curated by William Henry Ireland
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Shakespeare's personal library, as curated by William Henry Ireland

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Arnold Hunt Heather Wolfe

Co-written by Heather Wolfe and Arnold Hunt It’s every bibliophile’s dream. You’re in a bookshop, or maybe at a local auction, browsing idly along the shelves. It’s late in the afternoon and you’re just preparing to leave, when you spot a…

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