Folger Shakespeare Library

The Folger Shakespeare Library features a windowless facade of white Georgia marble, punctuated by nine relief panels depicting scenes from Shakespearean plays. Henry Clay Folger, a former president of Standard Oil, spent decades gathering rare editions of the First Folio. When he died in nineteen thirty, just months before the building opened, he left his immense collection to the American people. He never saw the finished library, yet his obsession ensured that this quiet block holds the largest Shakespeare collection in the world.