Only a block away from our apartment is the Folger Shakespeare Library. With an interest in Shakespeare and theater, the Library is a great, unexpected feature that is so close to home. Although Shakespeare does not really relate to anything we have study thus far, the history and legacy behind the founders and the stories helped supplement the information we have compiled about the founding of Washington, D.C. I found out that, although the inside of the Library is totally Elizabethan or Jacobian architecture, the outside was meant to match the Library of Congress and the Capitol Building by being completely art-deco. The original architects would not build an Elizabethan building, but compromised with the Folgers by building the outside to match the surrounding buildings, but the inside like an old-fashioned mansion. Although the outside is beautiful, as are all the surrounding buildings, the inside was unexpected and beautiful in an historical, scholarly way. Scholars and historians are able to visit the library and study ancient books that would normally not be available to the general public. We were also told that the historians are not allowed to use hand lotion anytime they are using the book. Which led to the hilarious joke, "You can always tell a Folger Scholar because they have dry cuticles". (haha)
We had a wonderful, well-informed tour guide (as pictured). He told our group many insider stories that we would have never known, such as what some of the paintings meant and how the theatre was built. I look forward to visiting the library many more times this summer and I hope to learn a little more each time I go.
Nicely done! Of course, the really important connection is that Henry Clay Folger made his money from the Standard Oil Company, which was founded by John D. Rockefeller, an Ohioan.
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