Exhibitions at the Folger

Current exhibition

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

Upcoming exhibitions

• The Wonder of Will: 400 Years of Shakespeare 2016 anniversary celebrations

Permanent displays

• First folio on display
• Founders' Room

Past exhibitions

2010s

• Symbols of Honor: Heraldry and Family History in Shakespeare's England (2014)

• Shakespeare's the Thing (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 Folger exhibitions 2012-2013 (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)

• Behind 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)

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

• Yesterday's News: Seventeenth-Century English Broadsides and Newsbooks (1995–1996)

Earlier exhibitions

• 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)

• 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 (1988–1988)

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

• 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.

• Marianne Moor Exhibition (1987)

• 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)
  • The exhibiton catalog was created by Michael Bandler.