The Collation

Research and Exploration at the Folger

Postcards in the Folger Archives: The 1879 Hyde Prize in Oratory at Amherst College

August 1, 2019 | By Guest Author

A guest post by Stephen Grant My first descent into the underground vault took place in 2007 during a short-term Folger fellowship. Since a Summer Retrospective is the order of the day with The Collation, I should like to acknowledge the Feb. 16, 2012 post honoring fellowship administrator, Carol Brobeck. With a tape measure stuffed into a side pocket, I trailed Betsy Walsh, head of reader services, as she led me to yards of shelving supporting dozens of gray archival boxes 10 x 13 x 4” laid out horizontally that formed the Folger Collection she called “Folger Coll.”… Continue Reading

Summer Retrospective: Early modern eyebrow interpretation

July 30, 2019 | By The Collation

Eyebrow shaping has been a thing for a long time. Including in the early modern period. Another one of our favorite posts from the past comes from the time when Heather Wolfe found a whole section on eyebrows in one of our manuscripts. Curious to learn more? Read all about it in Early modern eyebrow interpretation, or what it means to have a unibrow… Continue Reading

Summer Retrospective: Woodcut, engraving, or what?

July 23, 2019 | By The Collation

If you’ve ever been confused by the differences between woodcuts, engravings, and etchings, clearly you’re not alone! This post by Erin Blake, from 2012, is perennially one of our most popular. So in case you missed it the first time around, take a look at Woodcut, engraving, or what?… Continue Reading

Summer Retrospective

July 16, 2019 | By The Collation

Happy summer, everyone! (Or happy winter, if you’re in the southern hemisphere!) From now until the end of August, we’re going to be doing a summer retrospective here on The Collation, highlighting some of our past posts. This blog has been around for eight (8!) years now, so we’ve got quite the pool to choose from! To start off, let us take you back to where this all began, with our very first post from August 2011: Welcome to The Collation We hope you enjoy these looks back into some of our favorite content, while we prepare to bring you even more new posts in the future.… Continue Reading

“What’s in a Name?” or, Going Sideways

July 9, 2019 | By Elizabeth DeBold

When, in Act 2 of William Shakespeare’s famous teen suicide play Romeo and Juliet, Juliet muses “[w]hat’s in a name? That which we call a rose / [b]y any other word would smell as sweet,” it’s lucky for her that she isn’t speaking to a librarian. Although her sentiment is poetic, we librarians prefer to be a bit more precise when it comes to terminology.… Continue Reading