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National Geographic : 1987 Feb
Contents
survived to see the classic white marble building completed, the long-hidden collections installed, and the library dedicated in 1932 on April 23, Shakespeare's birthday. Today their ashes rest in an alcove there, under a bust of Shakespeare. While the Folgers garnered Shakespeareana, Sir Leicester Harmsworth, an English newspaper magnate, was collecting 11,000 works printed in England from 1475 to 1640 on every thing else. Corralling this collection in 1938, after Sir Leicester died, Folger director Joseph Quincy Adams transformed the Folgers' literary shrine into America's foremost historical li brary on 16th- and 17th-century English civilization. In his two decades as director, South Carolina historian Louis B. Wright, who came from California's Huntington Library in 1948, added more than 40,000 English and continental rare books and expanded Folger publications and fellowships. It was Wright's successor, 0. B. Hardison, Jr., a lanky Re naissance scholar and essayist, who breathed life into the Folger theater. He rejected long-held notions that it was only an exhibit, not intended for performances. "Then why have dressing rooms and stage lighting?" he asked as we discussed his 14 years as the library's director. "And why did Mr. Folger make his library the only one in the world with an Elizabethan theater-'to be used,' in his archi tect's words, 'for the presentation of Shakespeare's plays in their original staging.' " Within months of arriving from the University of North Carolina in 1969, Hardison had the theater operational, later establishing an acting conservatory and Shake speare festivals for schoolchildren. In 1970, with four universities, he founded the Folger Institute, a center for advanced study of the Renaissance and the 18th century. Twenty-two universities now participate-throughout the eastern United States-as well as the Newberry Library in Chica go, with its cluster of midwestern universities. He drew international scholars for conferences and ju bilees honoring Petrarch, Luther, and other giants. The prestigious Shakespeare Quarterly became the library's journal. The Folger Consort, a fine early music ensemble, took up residence. Meanwhile, Hardison masterminded an 8.5-million-dollar mod ernization and enlargement of the library. Today more than 200,000 visitors a year come from all over the world to study changing exhibits of rare books, costumes, and mementos, to buy Shake speare greeting cards, to attend concerts, lectures, and poetry readings. The Folger outreach even puts the Bard behind bars. In a prison near Pittsburgh, correctional insti tution teacher Dr. Robert Fowler, a black champion of the underdog fresh from a Folger "Teaching Shake speare" summer institute, tells teenage inmates, "Shake speare talks about real stuff-sex, friends dying, things you want but can't have." His street-smart listeners understand. Back-to-back Psalms and New Testament fill this embroideredEnglish dos-d dos volume, shown here three-fourths size. Its French-style bindingwas fashionable in 1610, when the book was published. To protect its treasures, the Folgeroperates an elaborateenvironment control system that keeps temperatureand humidity constant throughout the building.Even slight fluctuations can cause chemical changes and abrasive movements of paper and binding. Shakespeare Lives at the Folger 253
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