FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

When Henry C. Folger, of New York City, decided to build the library his first thought was to have this monument to the glory of Shakespeare designed in harmony with the architecture of Shakespeare’s time. However, the library being in Washington, very near the Capitol, the House of Representatives and Senate Office Buildings, and the Library of Congress (to which group was added the Supreme Court Building), made it appear somewhat dangerous to introduce Elizabethan architecture in such a classical frame.

After a conference with Dr. Paul Cret, architect, and Alexander B. Trowbridge, consultant, Mr. Folger agreed with this view, and a white marble structure of classic design was agreed upon. However, if the façades of a building are part of the scenery, once the door is passed, it is quite legitimate to harmonize the interiors with the collections therein displayed. It was with this end in view that the general plan was studied and adopted.

The requirements of the donor necessitated a reading room as free as possible from disturbance, and to find, for the benefit of the public, a room where could be displayed some selected material—books, prints, costumes, paintings, and works of art relating to Shakespeare. An exhibition room and theater were laid out to form a somewhat separated unit. The location of this reading room on the courtyard side away from the street noise is also more favorable to study. Below the reading room are two stories of stacks fully lighted by the courtyard.

The exhibition hall and the reading room form the center of the plan. The east wing is occupied by the lecture room-theater, which has its own lobby, and can be used at night independently of the rest of the building. The retiring rooms and dressing rooms are in the basement, and stairs lead to the balcony.

The west wing is occupied by the administration. On the main floor are the founder’s rooms and the offices of the director, his assistants, and clerks. On the second floor are the library staff workrooms and five private study rooms for scholars.

The over-all size of the building is 226 feet by 111 feet. It rises to a height of 48 feet on a property 364 feet by 186 feet. Work was started in November 1929. The façades were to harmonize in masses and material with classic Washington. A quiet modern Georgia marble façade, with silver grilles and balconies, was designed, using, as principal decoration, a set of nine bas-reliefs illustrating Shakespeare’s plays and some inscriptions emphasizing its purpose of memorial to a great poet.

EXHIBITION HALL—FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

The sculptural theme is based on the following plays: Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Richard the Third, Hamlet, and Henry the Fourth. Their execution was entrusted to John Gregory of New York. They are placed so as to have more importance than the usual frieze—below each window of the exhibition room, at the proper height for the passer-by, and along a marble terrace raised 3 feet above the street level.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION