Folger Shakespeare Library

The imposing marble façade of the Folger Shakespeare Library lends itself to the area's federal atmosphere. With the Supreme Court stoically standing watch over its front steps, and the Library of Congress, House and Senate Office Buildings, and the United States Capitol mere blocks away, the Shakespeare Library appears to be just another appendage of the U.S. government. However, the images etched into the building's exterior do not illustrate important landmarks of American history, but instead depict scenes written for the stage centuries before America existed. The masks of tragedy and comedy that hover over the entrances affirm that this library is a monument to William Shakespeare and a resource for all of his devotees.

The Folger Shakespeare Library is a museum, theater, concert hall, and classroom. Like the bard to whom it is dedicated, the library has many stories to tell. Its founders, Henry Clay Folger and his wife, Emily Jordan Folger, were luxuriously wealthy from a successful career with Standard Oil and so avidly indulged their mutual love for Shakespeare's works. They accumulated the world's largest collection of Shakespearean materials, including 79 bound First Folios of Shakespeare, printed in 1623. In 1932, the Folgers donated their vast library to the American people, along with the impressive structure that now houses it. Its exhibits are free and open to the public six days a week.

Before proceeding into the Great Hall, where the library's rotating exhibitions are on display, step into the Elizabethan Theatre, whose jubilant colors and intimate courtyard design invite you to paint yourself into Shakespeare's plays, if only for a moment. Folger Library presents three plays each year, puts on period music concerts, and co-hosts readings of contemporary literature and poetry with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation on this stage and at a few other locations throughout Washington. Explore the Folger website to discover an event that will entice you to the theater.

Members of Shakespeare's acting guild ensured that the bard's plays would be performed on future stages like the one at the Folger when they printed the 1623 First Folio. Many of the plays in this volume, such as Macbeth and The Tempest, had never been printed before and likely would not have passed into the modern day if the Folio did not exist. While other exhibitions cycle through the cavernous Great Hall, one of the library's 79 copies of the First Folio lies regally in a permanent display near the entrance, its pages open to an iconic print of Shakespeare. A computer program allows you to flip through the scanned pages of the Folio and then escorts you through its tale of Romeo and Juliet, from lark to nightingale.

With the animated guidance of one of the Folger's learned docents, who offer engaging tours about the library's rotating exhibitions twice a day, the literature and history of William Shakespeare assume new dimensions. Even without the allure of a Great Hall and Elizabethan Stage, the Folger gift shop makes a visit appealing, as it unsurprisingly surpasses most bookstores in its collection of Shakespearean works and paraphernalia. After pacing the austere beauty of the Great Hall and turning the virtual pages of a book printed in 1623, you may choose to restore your visit to the 21st century by purchasing a temporary William Shakespeare tattoo.

- Tess Hart