Telephone:
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+1 202-544-7077
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Website:
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Address:
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201 E Capitol St SE, Washington, DC, DC, 20003
b/t N 2nd St & S C St
Capitol Hill
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Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
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0.2 mi96, 97 route
0.3 miCapitol South
0.5 miEastern Market
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Local time (Washington, DC) | 11:24 Tuesday, 3 June 2025 |
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Specialties
Folger Shakespeare Library is a world-class center for scholarship, learning, culture, and the arts. Home to the world’s largest Shakespeare collection and a primary repository for research material from the early modern period (1500 – 1750), Folger Shakespeare Library is an internationally recognized research library offering advanced scholarly programs in the humanities; a national leader in how Shakespeare is taught in grades K-12; and an award-winning producer of cultural and arts programs — Folger Theatre productions, Folger Consort early music performances, Folger Poetry and PEN/Faulkner fiction readings, exhibits, lectures, and family programs. Learn more at www.folger.edu
History
Established in 1932.
Henry Clay Folger and his wife, Emily Jordan Folger, established the Folger Shakespeare Library as a gift to the American people. As a senior at Amherst College in 1879, Henry Folger became interested in Shakespeare after hearing a lecture given by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Throughout a long career in the oil industry, Henry built up, with his wife’s assistance, the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare materials. Together, they planned the library that would house their collection. Following its opening, the Folger steadily expanded its holdings to become a world-class research center on the early modern age in the West, while remaining the premier center for Shakespeare studies and resources outside of England. Its public outreach programs, which began with exhibitions and lectures, have grown to include theater and early music performances, poetry and fiction readings, publications, and a lively array of education offerings for teachers, students, and families.