Emily Jordan Folger (May 15, 1858 – February 21, 1936), was the wife of
Henry Clay Folger
Henry Clay Folger Jr. (June 18, 1857 – June 11, 1930) was president and later chairman of Standard Oil of New York, a collector of Shakespeareana, and founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Early life
Henry Clay Folger Jr. was born in New ...
and the co-founder of the
Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare material ...
. During her husband's lifetime, she assisted him in building the world's largest collection of Shakespeare materials. After his death in 1930, she funded the completion of the Folger Shakespeare Library to house the collection, remaining involved with its administration until her death in 1936.
In 1932, she became the third woman to receive an honorary degree from
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
, following
Mary Emma Woolley
Mary Emma Woolley (July 13, 1863 – September 5, 1947) was an American educator, peace activist and women's suffrage supporter. She was the first female student to attend Brown University and served as the 11th President of Mount Holyoke College ...
, president of Mount Holyoke College, in 1901; and Martha Dickinson Bianchi, editor of Emily Dickinson's poems, in 1931.
Early life and career
Emily Clara Jordan was born in
Ironton, Ohio
Ironton is a city in and the county seat of Lawrence County, Ohio, United States. Located in southernmost Ohio along the Ohio River northwest of Huntington, West Virginia, the city includes the Downtown Ironton Historic District.
The populatio ...
to
Edward W. Jordan and his wife, Augusta Woodbury Ricker. She was the third of their three daughters, preceded by Mary Augusta and Elizabeth. Edward Jordan served as Solicitor of the Treasury Department under Presidents
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
and
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a Dem ...
, and her family lived in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, for that part of her childhood. Emily received her early education at Miss Ranney's School in
, which prepared women for teaching or higher education. There, Emily was instructed in English language and literature, modern languages, mathematics, philosophy, and the natural sciences.
In 1875, she followed both of her sisters to
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
, where she was elected president of the 36-member class of 1879. At Vassar, Emily was accomplished in English composition and astronomy. She was educated in the latter subject by astronomer and Vassar professor
Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell ( /məˈraɪə/; August 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889) was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI (modern designation C/1847 T1) that was later known as " Miss Mi ...
, who was also a distant relative of her future husband, Henry Clay Folger, via their common ancestor,
Peter Foulger
Peter Folger or Foulger (died 1690) was a poet and an interpreter of the American Indian language for the first settlers of Nantucket. He was instrumental in the colonization of Nantucket Island in the Massachusetts colony. He was the maternal ...
. After graduating from Vassar in 1879, she worked in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
for six years as an instructor in the college-prep section of a private girls' school, Miss Hotchkiss's Nassau Institute.
Marriage
Emily was introduced to Henry Clay Folger as early as 1880, at a meeting of the Irving Literary Circle of Brooklyn by Lillie Pratt, sister of Charles Pratt, with whom Folger attended
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
. At an 1882 club picnic, the Pratts prompted toasts from both Emily and Henry, who quoted ''
Othello
''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...
'' and ''
As You Like It
''As You Like It'' is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has b ...
'', respectively. Folger was a graduate of
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...
, and a young oil-company executive, who later became the president and then the chairman of
Standard Oil of New York
Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999.
...
. Little else is known about their courtship; on October 6, 1885, Emily married Henry at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where Emily had spent her teenage years. After the wedding, the Folgers moved into a Brooklyn home with Folger's parents. For many years, they lived in rented homes in Brooklyn, moving to
Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1895, and to 24 Brevoort Place in 1910. They ultimately purchased an estate in
Glen Cove, Long Island, in 1929.
They often stayed at
The Homestead resort in
Hot Springs, Virginia
Hot Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) in Bath County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 Census was 738. It is located about southwest of Warm Springs on U.S. Route 220.
Hot Springs has several historic resorts, fo ...
. The Folgers had no children, and considered their vast collection of Shakespeareana and Early Modern objects their descendants.
Shakespeare collecting
![Emily Jordan Folger in the Founders' Room (1932)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Emily_Jordan_Folger_in_the_Founders%27_Room_%281932%29.jpg)
During their marriage, Henry Folger's interest in the works of Shakespeare led him to gather the world's largest private Shakespeare collection. The couple's pursuit of rare items often began with Emily, who pored over booksellers' catalogs, marking items of interest to herself and to her husband. Later, Henry sorted through the catalogs and her notes to determine a set list of items on which to bid. Once items were purchased, Emily generated a
catalog card
A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libraries is also c ...
for each acquisition, and cross-referenced these cards with the booksellers' catalogs to either avoid duplicate copies or upgrade to a better copy of a particular work. Their card catalog was stored in one of Standard Oil's Brooklyn warehouses.
Emily Folger helped to catalog the acquisitions, traveled with her husband on many transatlantic collecting trips, researched possible acquisitions, and often advised him on purchases. She earned an M.A. from Vassar in 1896 for a thesis on "The True Text of Shakespeare", a survey of current scholarship on the subject. She also corresponded with
Horace Howard Furness
Horace Howard Furness (November 2, 1833 – August 13, 1912) was an American Shakespearean scholar of the 19th century.
Life and career
Horace Furness was the son of the Unitarian minister and abolitionist William Henry Furness (1802–1896), ...
, a leading American Shakespeare editor. Among the Shakespearean societies she and Henry joined as a result of their collecting were the
Malone Society
The Malone Society is a British-based text publication and general scholarly society devoted to the study of 16th- and early 17th-century drama. It publishes editions of plays from manuscript, facsimile editions of printed and manuscript plays of ...
, the Oxford Bibliographic Society, and the
Shakespeare Club in England, as well as the American Shakespeare Foundation, the Shakespeare Association of America, and the National Shakespeare Federation in the United States.
The Folgers occasionally wrote Shakespearean actresses, like
Ellen Terry
Dame Alice Ellen Terry, (27 February 184721 July 1928), was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and tour ...
and
Julia Marlowe
Julia Marlowe (born Sarah Frances Frost; August 17, 1865 – November 12, 1950) was an English-born American actress, known for her interpretations of William Shakespeare's plays.
Life and career
Marlowe was born as Sarah Frances Frost at Cald ...
, to inquire about the purchase of manuscripts, props, and costumes used by the actresses. Among these acquisitions was the purple robe worn by Marlowe during her performance of
Portia in
The Merchant of Venice
''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock.
Although classified as ...
, which Emily wore when she prepared to bathe at the Homestead. Emily also kept a diary from 1906 to 1930 that recorded her responses to live performances of Shakespeare. The diary records Henry's reactions, as well as her own, to a production's actors, scenery, costumes, and direction.
After her husband's death, Emily continued to add to the Library's collection; these acquisitions included the
Ashbourne portrait
The Ashbourne portrait is one of several portraits that have been falsely identified as portrayals of William Shakespeare. At least 60 such works had been offered for sale to the National Portrait Gallery (London), National Portrait Gallery in the ...
, which she incorrectly believed to be of William Shakespeare.
Folger Shakespeare Library
By about 1918, the Folgers began planning for a library to house the collection. The project and its chosen site in Washington became public in 1928, after the land had been assembled. Henry Folger retired from Standard Oil to devote himself to the project, but he died unexpectedly in 1930 during a hospital stay. At the time, construction had just started. Because of the
1929 stock-market crash, Henry Folger's estate was greatly reduced and could not cover the full cost of building and opening the library. Emily Folger, who served as executor of her husband's estate, donated millions of dollars of her own funds to finish construction and operate the library. She received an honorary doctorate in 1932 from
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
for her role in making the library possible.
At an opening ceremony in April 1932, Emily Folger turned over the key to the
Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare material ...
to its trustees, saying that she did so for her husband and herself. She remained active in the library's administration for the rest of her life. Her sister Mary Augusta Jordan, who had been a professor at Vassar and
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
, funded the Library's first research scholarship.
Later life and death
Emily's involvement with the Library continued after its opening; beginning in 1934, she supported California actress Florence Locke in the latter's efforts to perform Ellen Terry's lectures on ''Shakespeare's Triumphant Women''. When in Washington, she served afternoon tea in the Founders' Room until she became too sick to do so.
After enduring many months of heart problems, Emily died of heart failure on February 21, 1936, at her estate in Glen Cove, Long Island, the same day Locke performed Terry's ''
Antony and Cleopatra
''Antony and Cleopatra'' (First Folio title: ''The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was first performed, by the King's Men, at either the Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre in around ...
'' lecture in the Folger Library's Elizabethan Theatre. Her eulogy was delivered by the Reverend Samuel Parkes Cadman of Brooklyn's Central Congregational Church. Her ashes were interred, alongside her husband's, in what is now the Old Reading Room of their Folger Shakespeare Library. Emily's
will
Will may refer to:
Common meanings
* Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death
* Will (philosophy), or willpower
* Will (sociology)
* Will, volition (psychology)
* Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will
...
strongly mirrored that of her husband's; though her siblings, nieces, and nephews received bequests, the bulk of her estate was left to the Library, to be administered alongside the remainder of her husband's estate.
[Grant 2014, p. 185.]
References
Further reading
* "Emily C. Folger Funeral Rites Set for Today: Widow of Standard Oil Leader Helped Found Shakespeare Library", ''Washington Post'' February 23, 1936.
* "Folger Shakespeare Library", ''New Encyclopædia Britannica,'' Chicago: Micropædia, 15th edition, 2007, Volume 4.
* King, Stanley. ''Recollections of the Folger Shakespeare Library.'' 1950.
* "Mrs. H.C. Folger Dies at 77: Widow of Donor of 80,000 Volumes for a Shakespeare Memorial in Capital: She Built the Library: Building Cost $2,000,000 and Has $10,000,000 Endowment – Mr. Folger Head of Standard Oil", ''New York Times,'' February 22, 1936.
External links
"A Shared Passion: Henry Clay Folger, Jr. and Emily Jordan Folger as Collectors" exhibition page from Folger website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Folger, Emily Jordan
1858 births
1936 deaths
People from Ironton, Ohio
Vassar College alumni
People from Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Shakespearean scholars
Folger Shakespeare Library