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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

“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: May 2016
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“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: May 2016

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Author
The Collation

Here’s a mystery of the Crocodile manner for May. The text shown in this image is one piece of a larger whole, but the question is what is it and how does it relate to the whole? As always, post…

In Defense of the Card Catalog
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In Defense of the Card Catalog

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Author
Abbie Weinberg

Whenever I am giving a tour of our Reading Rooms, or introducing a new Reader to our collection, I always make it a point to mention that we still have a card catalog room (two, in fact—one primarily for our…

How to plan a Shakespeare tercentenary
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How to plan a Shakespeare tercentenary

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Author
Sarah Hovde

The Folger has a wide assortment of commemorative material relating to Shakespearean celebrations—from David Garrick’s 1769 Shakespeare Jubilee, to tercentaries and quatercentenaries of Shakespeare’s birth (although no materials from the quatercentenary of his death quite yet)—but we hold very few…

Letter Scraps
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Letter Scraps

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Author
Abbie Weinberg

Yes, indeed. As several readers astutely figured out, this scrap of paper most likely bears the tail-end of the phrase “Sotheby sale.” As for why it’s in our collection? Well, part of that answer comes with one more piece of…

“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: April 2016
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“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: April 2016

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Author
The Collation

Welcome to our April crocodile mystery! So tell us, dear readers, why this scrap of paper is in our collection, and what it might be?

Musae Faciles; or, an Oxford Study Guide
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Musae Faciles; or, an Oxford Study Guide

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Author
Nicholas Tyacke

A guest post by Nicholas Tyacke Back in 2008, on the eve of directing a Faculty Weekend Seminar at the Folger, on “The University Cultures of Early-Modern Oxford and Cambridge,” I took the opportunity to consult the card catalog of…

New STC call numbers for old
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New STC call numbers for old

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Author
Erin Blake

The Great Reclassification has begun! As some of you may know, all newly-acquired vault material at the Folger is shelved in the order it was accessioned except for publications that fall within the scope of  A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland,…

Where is that book? Tracing copies imaged for EEBO
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Where is that book? Tracing copies imaged for EEBO

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Author
Meaghan J. Brown

How do you find a book? There are times when not just any copy will do, when you need to locate one exact copy of a book with a certain history. While gathering information for the Folger’s Digital Anthology of…

A monument more lasting than bronze
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A monument more lasting than bronze

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Author
Sarah Powell

exegi monumentum aere perennius regalique situ pyramidum altius, quod non imber edax, non Aquilo inpotens possit diruere… (Odes III: XXX, lines 1-4, published 23BC)  I have built a monument more lasting than bronze, higher than the Pyramids’ regal structures, that…

Fallen Type
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Fallen Type

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Author
Caroline Duroselle-Melish

Those of you who replied to the Crocodile post last week guessed right: what you see in this image is a piece of fallen type that was printed by accident over a page of text being printed. The height of…

“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: March 2016
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“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: March 2016

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Author
The Collation

A new month and a new mystery. We’ll keep this short and sweet: What, exactly, are we seeing in this image? Leave your thoughts in the comments here, and we’ll be back on Tuesday with the answer.

Textual variants in Shakespeare's love letter to Anne Hathaway
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Textual variants in Shakespeare's love letter to Anne Hathaway

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Author
Heather Wolfe

When Shakespeare was young and in love, he wrote a gushing letter to his bride-to-be, enclosing with it a lock of his hair and five verses. Or that’s what an audacious teenager in the 1790s would have us all believe. The supposed love letter…

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