A Shakespeare Center on Capitol Hill

“At first there was some question in his mind as to just where the building should be located,” Emily Folger once wrote about her late husband Henry Folger, founder of Folger Shakespeare Library. “But as time passed, he came to favor Washington. That city is the common capital of the whole United States; it belongs to all the people... Since the collection was to be given to the whole people, it seemed fitting that it should be placed in the District of Columbia.” Kim Sturgess explores the meaning of the library’s location at the heart of the American capital.