Elizabethan Households (1995)

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Elizabethan Households, one of the Exhibitions at the Folger, opened on February 13, 1995 and closed on May 20, 1995. Curated by the Folger's Executive Director of the Folger Institute Lena Cowen Orlin, the exhibition aimed to open a fresh investigation of domestic life in Elizabethan England and to demonstrate some of the ways in which it is possible to pursue such an investigation using the Folger's collections.

Curation

From 1982 to 1996, Lena Cowen Orlin coordinated postdoctoral seminars and conferences at the Folger Shakespeare Library as Executive Director of the Folger Institute.

Contents of the Exhibition

Exhibition Highlights

  • [list highlights here]

Gallery Layout

The exhibition took place in the Great Hall of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Case 1: The Great Rebuilding

The period 1570 to 1640 has been called "The Great Rebuilding" because so many English men and women built new houses, added dining rooms and parlors to their great halls and bedchambers, and achieved new standards of domestic comfort and luxury. Chimneys replaced open hearths, staircases supplanted ladders, glass was installed in windows, wainscoting warmed interior walls, and wall paintings and woven hangings added color and design. Meanwhile, Elizabethan and Jacobean courtiers created an impressive legacy with their country houses, built under the inspiration of new Continental ideas.

Items Included
  • Johann Amos Comenius. Orbis sensualium pictus...Visible world. Translated into English, by Charles Hoole. London: Printed for Charles Mearne, his Majesties bookseller at the Kings Arms at Charing-Cross, 1685. Folger C5525.
    • This little book for children illustrates different parts of the natural and material world as a means of conveying Latin vocabulary. In 1685, Charles Hoole translated the original Dutch version of 1664 into English. Plate 66 shows the parts of a house, each numbered to correspond to the appropriate word.
  • A Briefe Declaration for What Manner of Special/Nusance Concerning Private Dwelling Houses, a Man May Have his Remedy by Assise. London: By Thomas Cotes for William Cooke, 1639. Folger [1].
    • Building in the 16th and 17th centuries, like that today, was not accomplished without difficulties. First published in 1636, this tract presents the conflicting arguments of four lawyers in a case from over half a century earlier. One Master Hales had sued his neighbor, J. S., for constructing a house that blocked his light.

Case 2: [Title here]

[Description, if one, goes here]

Items Included
  • [list items with links to their catalog records]
    • [label text goes here]

Case 3: [Title here]

[Description, if one, goes here]

Items Included
  • [list items with links to their catalog records]
    • [label text goes here]

Supplemental materials