The Collation

Research and Exploration at the Folger

Posts By: The Collation

B&W photo of the Folger Reading Room from 1931

SAA? FSL!

March 15, 2019 | By The Collation

UPDATE: The Reading Room will be open from 9 am – 4:30 pm on Saturday, April 20, 2019. Please note that the docent-led public tour of the space will still take place from noon to 1pm, as usual, so researchers who would find that disturbing are advised to plan a lunch break accordingly. Are you attending the Shakespeare Association of America’s 2019 annual conference in Washington D.C.… Continue Reading

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: March 2019

February 26, 2019 | By The Collation

For the Crocodile of the month, we ask you to look at the title page (ignore the beautiful ink blot by the imprint) and colophon of this book in relation to its call number STC 4811. Is there something a bit unusual here? As always, leave your guesses in the comments and we’ll be back next week with the answer.… Continue Reading

The Journey is Underway for Before ‘Farm to Table’

December 11, 2018 | By The Collation

By now, you may have read about—or participated in—several activities linked to the project Before ‘Farm to Table’: Early Modern Foodways and Cultures. They have included food-related pop-up exhibitions at Folger public programs (the next one is for A Christmas Messe); Frances Dolan’s “Digging the Past: Writing and Agriculture in the Seventeenth Century” weekend seminar, which included a field trip to Smith Meadows Farm in Berryville, Virginia; a Material Witness seminar on readings about coffee and tea; sessions with distinguished scholars like Ken Albala, known for his food recreation research, and Craig Muldrew, whose numbers-based research assesses early modern food costs, caloric intakes, and more; and even a Thanksgiving-themed adapted recipe for early modern biscuits.… Continue Reading

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: November 2018

October 25, 2018 | By The Collation

As October draws to a close, we bring you a new Crocodile Mystery. (If you’re new around these parts and totally confused as to why we refer to our monthly mystery post as a “Crocodile”, this post will explain it.) For this month’s mystery, we ask that you look at the image below and let us know what it is depicting.… Continue Reading

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: October 2018

September 25, 2018 | By The Collation

For this month’s mystery, we’d like your thoughts on this image: what’s going on here with the design appearing in different spots on these two books? What is it, what does it mean, why might it appear here? Share your thoughts in the comments section!    … Continue Reading

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: August 2018

July 31, 2018 | By The Collation

This month’s Crocodile Mystery is about an inventory of typefaces found in a printshop. Can anyone guess in what type of printing business they would have been used? As always, leave your guesses and thoughts in the comments below, and we’ll be back next week with the answer.… Continue Reading