The “Quartermaster’s Map” of England and Wales

August 4, 2020 | By Erin Blake

Thanks for the excellent guesses on the identiy of the August Crocodile Mystery! If you’ll permit me to indulge myself, I’ll prolong the suspense a little longer by showing some examples of what it might have been, but isn’t (and if you won’t permit me, no one’s stopping you from scrolling down now to read the answer). As several people pointed out, the tall and skinny binding is the sort of thing you’d expect for a ledger or some other kind of financial account book.… Continue Reading

“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: August, 2020

July 28, 2020 | By The Collation

Some types of publication have fairly standard proportions. For example, you can be pretty sure this oblong volume isn’t a Bible or a play text: If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably a Berlemont-style international phrase book or a penmanship manual. As it happens, I don’t have to guess: it’s a penmanship manual, namely, an edition of Martin Billingsley’s The pen’s excellencie (call number: Folger STC 3062.3).… Continue Reading

2020-2021 Folger Research Fellows

July 23, 2020 | By Leah Thomas

The Folger Institute is pleased to announce our 2020-2021 cohort of Folger Institute Research Fellows. From the outset, we knew this year would be different. The Folger Institute marks its fiftieth anniversary this year, and the Folger Shakespeare Library is embarking on its major building project. While our Reading Room is closed, the Folger Institute remains committed to building community and supporting collections-based research, and to providing scholars with the resources they need to pursue and advance their work away from the Folger.… Continue Reading

Emily Jordan Folger and Joseph Quincy Adams

July 21, 2020 | By Guest Author

A guest post by Stephen Grant “The Hall was demolished in 1928,” Joan Harrison writes in Glen Cove, Images of America (2008), “for the building of Morgan Park,” named after financier J. P. Morgan. Emily Folger would have known when she sent this postcard in 1932 that the renowned hotel on the North Shore of Long Island was no longer. … Continue Reading

Getting Dressed with the Hermaphrodites

July 14, 2020 | By Guest Author

A guest post by Kathleen Long (Editor’s Note: You can read Kathleen’s previous post, Dining with the Hermaphrodites, for a discussion of another aspect the novel.) The inhabitants of the island depicted in the 1605 French novel, The Island of Hermaphrodites, live in a decidedly material world. They do not believe in anything truly spiritual, including the immortal soul, heaven or hell, or divinity in any celestial rather than earthly form.… Continue Reading

Heraldic Colors

July 7, 2020 | By Abbie Weinberg

Yes, indeed. The letters in this month’s mystery image are B, O, and G, and they represent what is missing from the image: color! The mystery image is a detail of a coat of arms in Folger MS V.b.256, which is a compilation of coats of arms granted by Robert Cooke (Clarenceux King of Arms) and Richard Lee (a later Clarenceux King of Arms), and others, between about 1570 and 1600, when the manuscript was written.… Continue Reading

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: July 2020

June 30, 2020 | By The Collation

Welcome back for another Crocodile Mystery! As you enjoy this first week of July (really? really? Who said the calendar could do that?), spare some thoughts for this mystery image. What’s going on in this image? What are those letters and what might be missing from this image? As always, if you’re so inclined, leave your guesses here in the comments and we’ll be back next week with more information!… Continue Reading

Announcing the Earle Hyman Collection

June 25, 2020 | By Elizabeth DeBold

Earlier this year, the Folger Shakespeare Library was privileged to receive the Earle Hyman Collection, including many of the actor’s personal papers, photographs, and theatrical ephemera, as a gift from his family and friends. Although we’re closed for renovations, we wanted to highlight this fabulous collection, as well as to recognize Mr. Hyman, his achievements, and his enormous contribution to theater worldwide.… Continue Reading

Postcards in the Folger Archives: British Sea Captain John Robinson and Henry Folger

June 23, 2020 | By Guest Author

A guest post by Stephen Grant Rosy-cheeked and white-bearded poet, painter, and shipmaster John Robinson of Watford, Hertfordshire was a commanding presence on the bridge of the steamship Minnehaha from 1900 until he retired from the American-owned Atlantic Transport Line due to poor eyesight in 1907. His seafaring career spanned a half-century, starting as cabin boy at a shilling a month.… Continue Reading

Words with pictures, or, What’s in a name?

June 18, 2020 | By Erin Blake

One of the points I like to make when I teach the History of Printed Book Illustration at Rare Book School is that images and words affect each other. The course deliberately focuses on illustrations—that is, on pictures and text that comment on each other, and affect each other’s meaning. It’s not just the aesthetic design and choice of subject that create meaning in book illustration, it’s the relationship between the visual and the verbal elements.… Continue Reading