Making a case for Shakespeare, 400 years after his death

The library was established by Henry and Emily Folger, Gilded Age philanthropists who spent their oil fortune obsessively collecting First Folios and rare Shakespeare materials. After years of hoarding the collection in bank vaults, they decided to create a monument to Shakespeare in America’s capital. “The poet is one of our best sources, one of the wells from which we Americans draw our national thought, our faith and our hope,” Emily said. The Founding Fathers similarly adored Shakespeare, seeing in his tyrants the need for institutional checks on power.