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The Collation

The Collation

Research and Exploration at the Folger

The Collation is a gathering of useful information and observations from Folger staff and researchers. Read more about this blog

“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…

“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: October 2022
double page of early modern printed text with a black circle overlaying the text in the center of the image
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“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: October 2022

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The Collation

There are many correct aspects to the answer to the question, “What manner of crocodile is this?” The more details you get, the higher your score! So see what you can piece together and we’ll be back next week to…

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…

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.…

“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: September 2022
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“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: September 2022

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The Collation

What manner o’ thing is this? Useless hint: like Antony’s eponymous crocodile, “It is shaped… like itself, and it is as broad as it hath breadth.” It does not, however, move “with it own organs.” Have a guess? Leave a…

Q & A: David McKenzie, Head of Exhibitions
Q & A: David McKenzie
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Q & A: David McKenzie, Head of Exhibitions

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The Collation

Please join us in welcoming David McKenzie to the Folger as the Head of Exhibitions. In this role, David will oversee the creation of a new Exhibitions department which will focus on re-envisioning the scope, content, and implementation of a…

Innogen and Ghost Characters
emma poltrack post
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Innogen and Ghost Characters

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emma poltrack

In a humorous post from 2017, web comic creator Mya Gosling mused about the absence of mothers in Shakespeare’s plays. Employing her signature stick-figure style, she presented a series of single-panel comics that put these absent maternal figures back in…

Postcards in the (home) archive 1942-43
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Postcards in the (home) archive 1942-43

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Stephen H. Grant

a guest post by Stephen Grant Fig. 1. Folger Shakespeare Library from Northwest 1942Author’s Collection, photo by Stephen Grant Printed on picture side: FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY, WASHINGTON, D. C. Printed on address side: PUB. BY GARRISON TOY & NOVELTY CO.…

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…

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