Digital collections

The Folger's digital collections are available at https://digitalcollections.folger.edu/

For information on the Folger's now-retired digital image collection on Luna, please see https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Luna_digital_image_collection

Creating a user account

A user account is necessary to create and save media groups. Register for an account here, or by clicking the log in button at the bottom of the page. If you have a request account, please use the same email address to sign up for your digital collections account!

Navigating the collections

Bindings

Folger Archives

Microfilm Images

Collection node IDs

These are used for the Member of (ID) field in the advanced search. See below for more details.

Books: 74
- Incunabula: 75
- STC imprints: 76
- Wing imprints: 77
- Pre-1831 imprints: 78
- Post-1830 imprints: 79
Manuscripts: 80
- Pre-1701 manuscripts: 81
  - Autograph letters signed from Thomas Booth, London, to John Booth, 1683-1689
  - Autograph letters signed from William Booth, London, to John Booth, 1628-1647 (bulk 1628-1629)
  - E. Williams watermark collection, including papers of the Hale family of King's Walden and other papers, ca. 1570-1699, compiled ca. 1920-1930
  - Letters from the Privy Council, 1545-1621
  - Newdigate family collection of newsletters, 1673/4-1715
  - Papers of Jacob Tonson, 1680-1737
  - Papers of Nathaniel Bacon, 1574-1650 (bulk 1590-1622)
  - Papers of Robert Bennet, 1603-1678
  - Papers of the Bacon-Townshend family of Stiffkey, Norfolk, 1550-1640
  - Papers of the Bagot family of Blithfield, Staffordshire, 1428-1671 (bulk 1557-1671)
  - Papers of the Cavendish-Talbot family, 1333-1705 (bulk 1548-1676)
  - Papers of the Ferrers Family of Tamworth Castle, 1371-1806 (bulk 16th - 17th century)
  - Papers of the Goodricke family of Ribston Hall, Nidderdale, Yorkshire, 1639?-1689
  - Papers of the More family of Loseley Park, Surrey, 1489-1682 (bulk 1538-1630)
  - Papers of the Rattray family of Craighall, 1593-1699
  - Papers of the Rich family, 1485-ca. 1820 (bulk 1649-1715)
- Post-1700 manuscripts: 82
  - Autograph letters signed from Edwin Booth to various recipients, 1858-1893
  - Autograph letters signed from William Winter to various recipients, 1864-1917
  - Collection of German papers relating to William Shakespeare, 1777-1912
  - Records of Covent Garden Theatre, 1740-1832
  - Records of Drury Lane Theatre, 1766-1880
  - Robert Young collection relating to William Winter, ca. 1745-2005 (bulk 1880-1906)
- Transcribed manuscripts: 210081
Art & Objects: 83
- British Book Illustrations: 89
- All pictures: 88
- Drawings: 86
- Paintings: 87
- Photos: 85
- Prints: 84
- Objects: 90
Shakespeare: 91
- Quartos: 92
- First folios: 93
- Second folios: 94
- Third folios: 95
- Fourth folios: 96
Bindings: 97
Folger archives: 99
Microfilm Images: 101

Advanced search

The fields available for advanced search are as follows:

Keyword: This works just like the keyword search on at the top of the site, and will search across all fields.
Associated name(s): People associated with the item who are not the creator. This may include printers, illustrators, former owners, etc. This field is also browsable, in combination with the creator field.
Bib ID: This is an identifier from the catalog, and can be found in each catalog entry's URL.
Bindings terms: RBMS Bindings terms have been applied to records in the bindings collection only, and in Folger digital collections also include the country and century of the binding. This field is also browsable.
Call number: As it appears in the catalog and/or finding aid. NOTE: we did not originally include call number in page records; we do now, but going back and adding it to all of the page records without it will take some time.
Contents: This is used only for the first folios that went on tour and lists the play or preliminary page that is displayed in the image.
Created/published: This includes the date of publication, name of the publisher or distributor, and the place of publication, as available.
Creator: This field is also browsable, in combination with the associated name(s) field.
Credit: This lists the photographer's name, when known.
Date: This is the date of creation, in EDTF format for sorting and faceting.
Digital image file name: This is the unique identifier used across Folger systems for our digital images. This can be found in every image record, and in the URL for that record.
Digital image type: Images taken by our Imaging staff in their photo lab have type High resolution image; Folger microfilm that has been digitized has type Digitized microfilm; and the images taken by our reference staff with their cell phones have type Reference image.
Genre/form(s): This field is also browsable.
Holdings ID: This is an identifier from the catalog, and can be found in the MARC (under the formats tab, selecting TextMARC or MARCXML) in field 852 subfield 7.
Iconclass headings: Iconclass headings were applied to images in the British Book Illustrations collection and are used to describe the content of the illustrations. In addition to keyword-searching the headings here, they can also be browsed hierarchically on the BBI website.
Member of (ID): The same as Member of (name) below, but using the collection's Drupal node ID rather than its name. These are generally only available to back-end users, but we've shared the node IDs of our collections above. [will add link once available.]
Member of (name): The name of the collection an item appears in. (For pages of a volume, it is a member of that volume, and the volume's title would be the collection name.) The name needs to be exact and complete in order for the search to work--for best results, copy and paste the collection name into the search box.
Microfilm call number: The call number of the microfilm that was digitized; the call number in the main call number field is for the item that was microfilmed.
Microfilm length: The length of the microfilm, given in feet.
Microfilm reduction ratio: The ratio of the size of the item compared to the size of the microfilm image.
Model: This is an Islandora field. The model for a volume is paged content, the model for a page image is page, and the model for an individual image is image.
Note(s): This includes reference citation notes (including the STC or Wing number, as applicable) and copy notes.
Page/opening: This field is only in image records and lists the page, signature, and/or leaf number(s), as applicable.
Place of creation: This field is hierarchical, meaning that, for instance, an item with place of creation Baltimore will also have places of creation Maryland and United States. This field is also browsable.
Resource type: This is an Islandora field. The resource type for a volume is collection, and the resource type for a page image or individual image is still image.
Subject(s): This field is also browsable.
Title: The title of a volume of individual image will be that item's actual title, as it appears in the catalog or finding aid. The title for a page will generally be the same as the page/opening field.
Transcription: More information on searching for and reading transcriptions is available below.

Searching for transcriptions

In the collections dropdown next to the search box, narrow your search to Manuscripts--or narrow it even further by selecting a sub-collection, like Pre-1701 manuscripts or Newdigate family collection of newsletters. From the object type dropdown right below the search box, select Search for images. This means your results will be individual image records, which are the record types that will have transcriptions when available. Removing object records from the results clears out some noise from the results list. In the search box itself, remember that spellings vary, and make liberal use of OR searching to search on multiple spellings. When looking for recipes with garlic, for instance, you may want to search for garlic OR garlick, as below:

Reading transcriptions

Semi-diplomatic transcriptions record as much of the detail of the handwritten or printed text as practical. This allows visitors to compare the transcriptions to the digital surrogates and to identify deleted text, emendations, abbreviated words that have been expanded, and other details. Here's what that means for the transcriptions in the digital collections:

Original spelling (including i/j, u/v, and ff), punctuation, capitalization, lineation, and indentation are maintained.
Abbreviations are expanded with the supplied letters italicized and superscript letters silently lowered.
- Exceptions to the abbreviation rule are symbols for money (l, s, d), which remain superscript and abbreviated, and forms of address (Mr, Mrs), which also remain abbreviated since they were never expanded in the period.
- The orthography of the scribe is observed when expanding abbreviated words.
Thorns (the medieval symbol for "th," typically rendered as a "y" in early modern print and manuscript) are replaced with italicized "th."
Cancelled words are struck-through.
Interlineal insertions remain superscript, and are marked by a caret symbol (^) if present.
Indecipherable or obliterated words appear in square brackets with dots representing the number of letters thought to be missing.
Accidental obliterations, flourishes, and line fillers are not represented in the transcription, but will be visible in the digital image of the manuscript. Changes in hand, ink, or size of script are not indicated in the transcription.

Working with media groups

For instructions on exporting media groups from Luna, see https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Migrating_media_groups_from_Luna

Before beginning your work, make sure you're signed in.

Creating media groups

Select Add a new media group from the Create drop-down in the menu. This will open a form. You must give your new media group a title, and you can choose to add a description. You can begin to add items using the box below the description field if you are adding an image and know the exact digital image file name. At the very bottom of the form, there's a check box. Check to make your media group public, or leave it unchecked to keep it private. Click the save button to finish creating your group.

Adding to media groups

Both individual images and entire objects can be added to media groups.

To add items from a search results or browse page, hover over the thumbnail and click the + button that appears in the top left corner of the thumbnail. Choose the media group you'd like to add your object or image to from the list.

To add objects or images from a record page, just click the big red Add to media group button that's just under the viewer. Select the media group you'd like to add to from the list.

Viewing media groups

To view media groups, just click the Media Groups link in the menu. You'll see all of your own media groups, as well as any public media groups. If you click into a group, you can get a permalink. If that group is one of your own, you'll also get an edit menu: from here, you can change the title or description, change between public and private, or delete your media group.

Citations and permissions

Please see https://www.folger.edu/research/images-and-permissions/ for full details.

We do not require image attribution, but we kindly request that you provide, at minimum, "Call Number," "Page/opening" (when available), and "Digital Image File Name" for the image, along with the name of the institution. This helps your audience identify the source of the image.

Every item in our digital collections has a Rights section with copyright information. We do not charge permission or publication fees for images released under public domain or a CC0 license.

If a copyright holder other than “Folger Shakespeare Library” is listed in the Rights section with an image, then we cannot grant permission for that image’s reuse. You will need to contact the copyright holder directly to request permission for reuse.

For permission to reuse any event photography where the Folger Shakespeare Library is the copyright holder, please contact press@folger.edu. This includes any theatre photography.

If your publisher requires a formal letter of permission, please contact us at photo@folger.edu.

If you photographed items in our collection that are not under copyright, you are free to reuse those images. See our Reading Room Camera Policy.

URL structure

Image records

URLs for individual images are formed by appending the digital image file name (removing any leading zeroes) to the end of the base URL digitalcollections.folger.edu/img

The digital image file name is number of up to six digits, and is the very first field in the image record on both the new digital collections site and on Luna:

By appending digital image file name 72418 to the base URL above, we get the link digitalcollections.folger.edu/img72418

Microfilm image records use the same style of file name, and their URLs are constructed in the same way. Bindings images records use a different and more complicated style of file names, so they instead use a default URL structure that is not predictable based on external IDs.

Standard object records

Whenever we have more than one image for an item--multiple pages in a book, for instance--we will also have a parent record linking all of the individual images together. The URL for these object records is formed by appending the bibliographic ID, a hyphen, and the holdings ID to the end of the base URL digitalcollections.folger.edu/bib

The bib and holdings IDs can be found in the catalog. The catalog URL for STC 6857, Tectonicon, is catalog.folger.edu/record/163490 The number at the end of the catalog URL--163490 in this example--is the bib ID. If we look at that same record in the MARC view (by appending /export/tm to the end of the catalog URL), we see that bib ID again at the top of the record, in the 001 field. Towards the bottom of the record, in field 852 subfield 7 ($$7), we can find the holdings ID--156904 for this example.

By appending these IDs, separated with a hyphen, to the base URL above, we get the link digitalcollections.folger.edu/bib163490-156904

Microfilm object records

Microfilm object record URLs are formed in nearly the same way as standard object URLs. Because we may sometimes have both standard and microfilm images of the same item, we need to differentiate between the two. We do that for microfilm object records for including mf in the base URL: digitalcollections.folger.edu/mf_bib

The URL for the standard object record for V.a.269, which has bib ID 231225 and holdings ID 280167, is digitalcollections.folger.edu/bib231225-280167, and the URL for the microfilm object record for the same item is digitalcollections.folger.edu/mf_bib231225-280167

Bindings object records

Bindings object records are formed just like microfilm object records, replacing the mf prefix with bindings, making the base URL for these items digitalcollections.folger.edu/bindings_bib

An example will be added shortly.