8-3Folger

What is the Folger Shakespeare Library? What is its history and its mission? //Answer prepared by Emily C.//

According to the [|Folger Shakespeare Library’s official website], The Folger Shakespeare Library holds the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s written works, including over “256,000 books; 60,000 manuscripts; 250,000 playbills; 200 oil paintings; some 50,000 drawings, watercolors, prints, and photographs; and a wealth of other materials, including musical instruments, costumes, and films.” But the library is best-known for its 79 copies of his First Folio. It is also a well known research center used by students, families and teachers. The library offers programs in music, education, plays, poetry, exhibits, lectures, and family programs for everyone. Every year in March, the Library holds the Secondary School Shakespeare Festival. Students come for the day to watch and perform pieces from Shakespeare’s works. The festival is not considered a competition, but it does award superior performances, student directors and good spirit. They also hold a “Shakespeare Steps Out Program,” which is aimed to reach out to students and teachers from grades 3rd-6th. This program introduces Shakespeare’s language. The Folger library offers several programs to high schoolers also. “The ** High School Fellowship Program” allows students to study, perform, and watch Shakespeare. “The Shakespeare's Sisters: Five Centuries of Poetry by Women” is a program where students study British and American women who were poets. The library also offers “The Writers in Schools Program,” which allows high school classes to be visited by famous writers. **

According to Esther Ferington, the library opened in 1932, it was a gift to America from [|Henry Clay Folger] and his wife Emily Jordan Folger. The library is located on Capitol Hill, intentionally placed in our nation’s capital to preserve America’s hope and faith. Henry was the Standard Oil of New York president and a graduate of Amherst College. A lecture by his college professor, Ralph Waldo Emerson sparked Folger’s interest in Shakespeare’s work. Ralph W. Emerson was a writer and public speaker. He studied William Shakespeare among many other famous men such as Saint Augustine, Sir Francis Bacon, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Henry and Emily Folger began to collect Shakespeare’s works and build it up to what it has become today. Unfortunately just as the library was being built, in November 1929, Henry Folger died. About a week after his death, the trustees of Amherst College learned that they were going to manage the majority of Henry’s fortune as a trust for the new Folger Shakespeare Library. The stock market crash of 1929 depleted Henry’s fortune, but work on the library was able to continue because of “careful planning by the trustees and the generosity of Emily Folger, who contributed millions of dollars in Standard Oil securities to the project,” according to the Folger Shakespeare Library’s official website. The library was finally able to open on April 23, 1932 which is believed to be Shakespeare's birthday.

The Folger Shakespeare Library’s official website explains that the mission of the library is to maintain the large collection of Shakespeare’s work and to expand the knowledge and admiration of Shakespeare to the American people. To achieve this mission, they have created programs for the public and have shared their vast collection of his works.

T[|he Folger Shakespeare Library Video] [|The Library's Educational Programs] [|History of the Folger Library]

__Works Cited__ “About Us.” __The Folger Shakespeare Library__. March 25, 2005 . Visited April 6, 2009.

Ferington, Esther. //Infinite Variety: Exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library.// Washington, DC: Folger Shakespeare Library, 2001, page 16.

Marlen, Megan. //The History of the Folger Shakespeare Library.// Los Angelos: Popinjay Press, 2004.

Ziegler, Georgianna. //Duty and Enjoyment: The Folgers as Shakespeare Collectors in the Gilded Age//. Washington DC: Folger Shakespeare Library, 2007, pages 108-109.