World’s largest Shakespeare collection reopens after $80 million renovation

The world’s largest William Shakespeare collection has reopened after an $80 million renovation.

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is hoping to revive interest in the English language’s most famous writer at a time when “Shakespeare’s exalted place in the public imagination is increasingly under threat, at least in America,” The Economist wrote, with the political right decrying his work as obscene and some on the left considering it colonialist, racist, and misogynistic.

The Folger is making the case that “Shakespeare belongs to everyone,” and a new exhibition aims to tackle race head-on, featuring a portrait of Ira Aldridge, the first Black actor to play Othello.