Exhibitions at the Folger

Current exhibitions

Building closed for renovation.

Current traveling exhibitions

None at the moment

Upcoming exhibitions

Check back soon

Permanent displays

• First folio on display
• Founders' Room

Satellite exhibition spaces

• Founders' Room temporary exhibitions
• Tea Room temporary exhibitions
• Pop-up exhibitions

Past traveling exhibitions

• First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare January 4, 2016 – January 2, 2017 (50 States and 2 territories)
• America's Shakespeare: The Bard Goes West November 17, 2016 – February 26, 2017 (Los Angeles Public Library)

Past exhibitions

2010s

• A Monument to Shakespeare: The Architecture of the Folger Shakespeare Library (April 13, 2019 – January 5, 2020)

• First Chefs: Fame and Foodways from Britain to the Americas (January 19 – Mar 31, 2019)

• Churchill's Shakespeare (October 6, 2018 – January 6, 2019)

• Form and Function: The Genius of the Book (June 16 – September 23, 2018)

• Beyond Words: Book Illustration in the Age of Shakespeare (February 24 to June 3, 2018)

• Painting Shakespeare (May 13, 2017 – February 11, 2018)

• 500 Years of Treasures from Oxford (February 4, 2017 - April 30, 2017)

• First Folio! Shakespeare's American Tour (November 19, 2016 - January 22, 2017)

• Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity (August 6, 2016 – November 6, 2016)

• America's Shakespeare (April 7, 2016 – July 24, 2016)

• Shakespeare, Life of an Icon (January 20, 2016 – March 27, 2016)

• Age of Lawyers: The Roots of American Law in Shakespeare's Britain (September 12, 2015 – January 3, 2016)

• Ships, Clocks and Stars: The Quest for Longitude (March 19, 2015 – August 23, 2015)

• Decoding the Renaissance: 500 Years of Codes and Ciphers (November 11, 2014 – March 1, 2015)

• Symbols of Honor: Heraldry and Family History in Shakespeare's England (July 1 – October 16, 2014)

• Shakespeare's the Thing (January 28 – June 15, 2014)

• Here Is a Play Fitted: Four Centuries of Staging Shakespeare (2013–2014)

• A Book Behind Bars: The Robben Island Shakespeare (2013)

• Nobility and Newcomers in Renaissance Ireland (2013)

• Very Like a Whale (2012–2013)

• Open City: London, 1500–1700 (2012)

• Shakespeare's Sisters: Voices of English and European Women Writers, 1500–1700 (2012)

• Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible (2011–2012)

• Fame, Fortune, & Theft: The Shakespeare First Folio (2011)

• Beyond Home Remedy: Women, Medicine, and Science (2011)

• Vivat Rex!: 500th Anniversary of Henry VIII's Accession to the Throne (2010)

• Lost at Sea: The Ocean in the English Imagination, 1550–1750 (2010)

• Extending the Book: the Art of Extra-Illustration (2010)

2000s

• Imagining China: the View from Europe, 1500–1700 (2009–2010)

• The Curatorial Eye: Discoveries from the Folger Vault (2009)

• To Sleep, Perchance to Dream (2009)

• Breaking News: Renaissance Journalism and the Birth of the Newspaper (2008–2009)

• Now Thrive the Armorers: Arms and Armor in Shakespeare (2008)

• History in the Making: How Early Modern Britain Reimagined its Past (2008)

• Marketing Shakespeare: the Boydell Gallery, 1789–1805, & Beyond (2007–2008)

• Shakespeare in American Life (2007)

• Technologies of Writing in the Age of Print (2006–2007)

• Noyses, Sounds, and Sweet Aires: Music in Early Modern England (2006)

• Golden Lads & Lasses: Shakespeare for Children (2006)

• Consuming Splendor: Luxury Goods in England, 1580–1680 (2005)

• David Garrick, 1717–1779: A Theatrical Life (2005)

• Letterwriting in Renaissance England (2004–2005)

• Voices for Tolerance in an Age of Persecution (2004)

• Word & Image: The Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608 (2004)

• Fakes, Forgeries & Facsimiles (2003–2004)

• Elizabeth I: Then and Now (2003)

• Thys Boke is Myne (2002–2003)

• A Shared Passion: Henry Clay Folger, Jr. and Emily Jordan Folger as Collectors (2002?)

• The Pen's Excellencie (2002)

• The Reader Revealed (2001–2002)

• Designer Bookbinders in North America (2001)

• Writing on Hands: Memory and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe (2000–2001)

• A Decade of Collecting: Celebrating Ten Years of Acquisitions (2000)

• Fortune: All is But Fortune (2000)

1990s

• Fooles and Fricassees: Food in Shakespeare's England (1999)

• Seeing What Shakespeare Means (1999)

• Designs from Fancy: George Romney's Shakespearean Drawings (1998–1999)

• Papers and Porcelains: Two Recent Gift Collections (1998)

• Mapping Early Modern Worlds (1998)

• Housewife's Rich Cabinet: Remedies, Recipes, & Helpful Hints (1997–1998)

• Shakespeare's Unruly Women (1997)

• Impressions of Wenceslaus Hollar (1996–1997)

• Yesterday's News: Seventeenth-Century English Broadsides and Newsbooks (1996)

• The Festive Renaissance: Illustrated Books from the Colt Collection (1995–1996)

• Elizabethan Households (1995)
  • The book Elizabethan Households: An Anthology by Lena Cowen Orlin was published in conjunction with the exhibition.

• Sword and the Pen (1995)

• Collectors’ Choice: Favorites from Collections of Friends of the Folger Library (1994–1995)
  • The exhibition catalog was edited by Rachel Doggett.

• Royal Autographs: the Tudor and Stuart Monarchs of England (1994)
  • The exhibition catalog was created by Laetitia Yeandle and Rachel Doggett.

• Roasting the Swan of Avon: Shakespeare's Redoubtable Enemies & Dubious Friends (1994)
  • The exhibition catalog was written by Bruce R. Smith.

• Unfaded Pageant: Edwin Austin Abbey (Loan Exhibition) (1994)
  • The exhibition catalog was written by Lucy Oakley with introduction by Allen Staley.

• Paintings from the Folger Shakespeare Library (1993–1994)

• Fabulous Beasts: Renaissance Animal Lore (1993)
  • The exhibition catalog was created by Rachel Doggett, Jean Dunnington, and Jean Miller.

• The Elizabethan View of Italy (1993)
  • The exhibition catalog was written by Miranda Johnson-Haddad with Mary Tonkinson, Werner Gundersheimer, and Robert Eisenstein.

• New World of Wonders, 1492-1700 (1992–1993)
  • The exhibition catalog was edited by Rachel Doggett with Monique Hulvey, and Julie Ainsworth.

• Fine and Historic Bookbindings (1992)
  • The exhibition catalog was created by Frederick A. Bearman, Nati H. Krivatsy, J. Franklin Mowery with an introduction by Anthony Hobson. Photographs by Julie Ainsworth.

• Reign of the Horse: the Horse in Print, 1500-1715 (1992)
  • The exhibitions catalog was prepared by Elizabeth Niemyer with the assistance of Susan Scola with an introduction to the catalogue by Anthony Dent.

• The First Folio of Shakespeare (1991)
  • The exhibition catalog was created by Peter W. M. Blayney.

• Five Years of Acquisitions (1990–1991)
  • The exhibition catalog.

• Cathedral: Faith in Stone (1990)

• Rosenbach Redux: Further Book Adventures in Book Collecting (1990)

1980s

• Shakespeare: The Works (1989)

• Women in the Renaissance (1989)
  • The exhibition catalog.

• Age of William III and Mary II – Tercentenary Exhibition (1989)
  • The reference encyclopedia and exhibition catalog was edited by Robert P. Maccubbin and Martha Hamilton-Phillips.

• The Grete Herball: Books from the Collection of Mary P. Massey (1988–1989)
  • The exhibition catalog.

• The Elizabethan Theater: the Theater Art of C. Walter Hodges (1988)

• Folger’s choice : Favorites on our Fifty-fifth Anniversary (1987)
  • The exhibition catalog.

• Vision Into Verse: Marianne Moore and the Modernist Poem (1987–1988)

• Time: The Greatest Innovator: Timekeeping and Time Consciousness in Early Modern Europe (1986–1987)
  • The exhibition catalog was edited by Rachel Doggett with the assistance of Susan Jaskot and Robert Rand.

• The Compleat Gentleman: Books from English Country Houses (1985–1986)
  • The exhibition catalog.

• Emily Dickinson Centennial Symposium and Exhibition (1986)

• The Kemble Family: A Theatrical Dynasty (1985)
  • The exhibition catalog.

• The Collector and the Dream (1982–1983) "in at least 3 parts"

• The Treatment of Books and Art Materials (1983)

• Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary (1983)
  • The exhibition catalog.

• Martin Luther, 1483-1546: A Jubilee Exhibition (1983)
  • The exhibition catalog.

• Magna Carta (1982)

• Shakespeare, the Globe, and the World (1979–1981)
  • No formal exhibition catalog was produced, but there is an accompanying book by Samuel Schoenbaum and a magazine article by Michael Bandler.
  • This exhibition traveled during the period in which renovations were being carried out on the Folger buildings on Capitol Hill, and so was never displayed at the Folger Shakespeare Library itself.

Earlier Exhibitions

• "A Decade of Folger Acquisitions: 1968-1978" (1978-1979)
  • The exhibition catalog

• "Petrarch in America : a survey of Petrarchan manuscript" (1974)
  • At the Folger Shakespeare Library, April 6-May 5, and the Pierpont Morgan Library, May 16-June 27.
  • The exhibition catalog

Exhibitions by year

Folger exhibitions 2013–2014

Folger exhibitions 2012–2013

Folger exhibitions 2011–2012

Folger exhibitions 2010

Folger exhibitions 2009–2010

Folger exhibitions 2008–2009

Folger exhibitions 2007–2008

Folger exhibitions 2006–2007

Folger exhibitions 2005

Folger exhibitions 2004–2005

Folger exhibitions 2003

Folger exhibitions 2002–2003

Folger exhibitions 2001–2002

Folger exhibitions 2000–2001

Folger exhibitions 1999

Folger exhibitions 1998–1999

Folger exhibitions 1997–1998

Folger exhibitions 1996–1997

Folger exhibitions 1995–1996

Historic exhibitions files

Exhibition content has been documented in various paper files over the years. These are the three main sets of paper files as identified by Rachel Doggett, then Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Books and Exhibitions, in a memo dated 22 January 1991.

1. Binders (1957 to 1991 [and continued through 2019]) "The Reading room maintains notebooks, going back to 1957, which list, case by case, what books were in each exhibit (author, title, date, call no.). These notebooks also contain a chronological listing of Folger exhibitions, their titles, and the inclusive dates they were on display."
2. Card file (1950s to ca. 1977) "The Catalog Office … maintained, since the 1950s, a card file listing each book exhibited by author, title, etc. At the bottom of the card for each book is a designation of the subject(s) for which it was exhibited. On the verso of each card is a listing of the exhibit title(s) and dates of display."
3. File folders (1950s to ca. 1977) "The Catalog office also maintain[ed] file folders, by subject, for Folger books exhibited. Each book has a sheet for each time it was on display. The sheet lists author, title imprint, call no., opening, etc. On the verso of the sheet the text of the case label is transcribed."

The binders (known as the "Reading Room Exhibition Binders" or just "Exhibition Binders") are gradually being gone through in order to document exhibition history in machine-searchable form through:

1. A Folgerpedia article for each exhibition, linked to from this page.
2. A MARC 585 Exhibitions Note in the catalog record for each item. The note gives exhibition year and title, catalog entry (if applicable), and opening. Searching by exhibition short title will (eventually) bring up a list of everything included in that exhibition. The short title of each exhibition can be found in the Examples section of the Folgerpedia article.

According to Rachel Doggett in 1991, boxes of case labels from 1977 onward were kept with the intention of continuing the card file and file folders. Earlier labels must also have been kept because the ones scanned to PDF in 2019 are all earlier (on the staff-only shared drive: Everyone > Exhibition Label Scans).