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Folger Collections

“Good Grief! What’s That?”: Odd Images in the Folger Microfilm Image Collection
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“Good Grief! What’s That?”: Odd Images in the Folger Microfilm Image Collection

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William Davis

A guest post by William Davis Thank you to everyone who left a guess on this month’s crocodile mystery! Everyone got a piece of it, but none the whole. It takes a stalwart person to identify some of the many quotes…

Macbeth and the End of Slavery in the United States
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Macbeth and the End of Slavery in the United States

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David McKenzie

What can Shakespeare say about the original sin of the United States, slavery? As two artists in the Civil War era thought, a lot. Two cartoons in the Folger’s collections, drawn around a decade apart, allude to Shakespeare’s Macbeth to…

Collection Connections: 'Learwife' by J.R. Thorp
Folger Spotlight

Collection Connections: 'Learwife' by J.R. Thorp

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emma poltrack

Held on the first Thursday of the month, the Folger’s virtual book club is free and open to all. Here, Dr. emma poltrack, shares items she presented on September 8, 2022 as an introduction to Learwife by J.R. Thorp.

The art of dying
Image of title page for Christopher Sutton's Disce mori: learn to die.
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The art of dying

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Eileen Sperry

a guest post by Eileen Sperry For early modern English Christians, dying was an art form. The bestseller list of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, had there been one, would have been topped by some of the period’s many…

Folger manuscripts out and about: a field trip to Penn!
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Folger manuscripts out and about: a field trip to Penn!

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The Collation

During the Folger’s building renovation, we have been fortunate to be able to send a selection of twenty-nine pre-modern manuscripts up to the University of Pennsylvania Libraries’ Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts in Philadelphia. This exciting…

Frederick William MacMonnies, Shakespeare, circa 1895
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Frederick William MacMonnies, Shakespeare, circa 1895

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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.…

When the Body is Ill, The Mind Suffers: Shakespeare's Unravelling of Women’s Hysteria and Madness in the Elizabethan Era
A half-finished portrait of a woman whose face is upturned in what looks like suffering.
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When the Body is Ill, The Mind Suffers: Shakespeare's Unravelling of Women’s Hysteria and Madness in the Elizabethan Era

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Alexandria Zlatar

a guest post by Alexandria Zlatar During my research fellowship with the Folger Institute, my investigation has undertaken an exploration into a highly under-represented aspect of mental health and has focused on lived-in experiences of mental illness in Shakespearian England.…

Stealing Signs
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Stealing Signs

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Rachel B. Dankert

Thanks to everyone who shared their guesses on last week’s post and congratulations to those of you who guessed correctly! Sermo mirabilis: or the silent language by Charles de La Fin, London, 1693. Folger call number: L174 The mystery image…

My True Meaning: emotions in seventeenth-century wills
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My True Meaning: emotions in seventeenth-century wills

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Elizabeth DeBold

Anyone who has read early modern wills, whether in an attempt to confirm the names of family members or out of interest in material history, knows that they are full of emotion. Dying men and women describe their family members…

A game of chess
chess board with pieces
Shakespeare and Beyond

A game of chess

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Take a closer look at some unusual chess sets in the Folger collection, spanning continents and centuries.

Caught Inky Handed: Fingerprints of Practitioners
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Caught Inky Handed: Fingerprints of Practitioners

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Caroline Duroselle-Melish

Thank you for your suggestions regarding these fingerprints. They are, indeed, the marks of two different fingers with different patterns. I tend to think, like Elizabeth, that they are the marks of a middle finger and an index or a…

Love-in-idleness, Part One: Adapting an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial
purple pansy floating in pink cocktail
Shakespeare and Beyond

Love-in-idleness, Part One: Adapting an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial

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Marissa Nicosia

Marissa Nicosia adapts an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial. This purple pansy syrup was used to “clear the heart” – to treat the chest and lungs or to reduce fever – but also for healing heartaches.

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