Has a writer ever inspired as many adap-ta-tions and ref-er-ences as William Shake-speare? In the four hun-dred years since his death, his work has pat-terned much of the fab-ric of world lit-er-a-ture and seen count-less per-mu-ta-tions on stage and screen. Less dis-cussed are the visu-al rep-re-sen-ta-tions of Shake-speare in fine art and illus-tra-tion, but they are mul-ti-tude. In one small sam-pling, Richard Altick notes in his exten-sive study Paint-ings from Books, that “pic-tures from Shake-speare account-ed for about one fifth—some 2,300—of the total num-ber of lit-er-ary paint-ings record-ed between 1760 and 1900” among British artists.
In the peri-od Altick doc-u-ments, a rapid-ly ris-ing mid-dle class drove a mar-ket for lit-er-ary art-works, which were, “in effect, exten-sions of the books them-selves: they were detached forms of book illus-tra-tion, in which were con-stant-ly assim-i-lat-ed the lit-er-ary and artis-tic tastes of the time.” These works took the form of humor-ous illustrations—such as the As You Like It-inspired satir-i-cal piece at the top from 1824—and much more seri-ous rep-re-sen-ta-tions, like the undat-ed Cur-ri-er & Ives Midsummer-Night’s Dream lith-o-graph above. Now, thanks to the Fol-ger Shake-speare Library, these images, and tens of thou-sands more from their Dig-i-tal Image Col-lec-tion, are avail-able online. And they’re free to use under a CC BY-SA Cre-ative Com-mons license.
As Head of Col-lec-tion Infor-ma-tion Ser-vices Erin Blake explains, “basi-cal-ly this means you can do what-ev-er you want with Fol-ger dig-i-tal images as long as you say that they’re from the Fol-ger, and as long a you keep the cycle of shar-ing going by freely shar-ing what-ev-er you’re mak-ing.” The Folger’s impres-sive repos-i-to-ry has been called “the world’s finest col-lec-tion of Shakespere-an art.” As well as tra-di-tion-al paint-ings and illus-tra-tions, it includes “dozens of cos-tumes and props used in nine-teenth-cen-tu-ry Shake-speare pro-duc-tions,” such as the embroi-dered vel-vet cos-tume above, worn by Edwin Booth as Richard III, cir-ca 1870. You’ll also find pho-tographs and scans of “’extra-illus-trat-ed’ books filled with insert-ed engrav-ings, man-u-script let-ters, and play-bills asso-ci-at-ed with par-tic-u-lar actors or pro-duc-tions; and a great vari-ety of sou-venirs, com-ic books, and oth-er ephemera asso-ci-at-ed with Shake-speare and his works.”
In addi-tion to illus-tra-tions and mem-o-ra-bil-ia, the Fol-ger con-tains “some 200 paint-ings” and draw-ings by fine artists like “Hen-ry Fuseli, Ben-jamin West, George Rom-ney, and Thomas Nast, as well as such Eliz-a-bethan artists as George Gow-er and Nicholas Hilliard.” (The strik-ing print above by Fuseli shows Mac-beth’s three witch-es hov-er-ing over their caul-dron.) Great and var-ied as the Folger’s col-lec-tion of Shake-speare-an art may be, it rep-re-sents only a part of their exten-sive hold-ings. You’ll also find in the Dig-i-tal Images Col-lec-tion images of antique book-bind-ings, like the 1532 vol-ume of a work by Agrip-pa von Nettescheim (Hein-rich Cor-nelius), below.
The col-lec-tion’s enor-mous archive of 19th cen-tu-ry prints is an espe-cial treat. Just below, see a print of that tow-er of 18th cen-tu-ry learn-ing, Samuel John-son, who, in his famous pref-ace to an edi-tion of the Bard’s works declared, “Shake-speare is above all writ-ers.” All in all, the immense dig-i-tal col-lec-tion rep-re-sents, writes The Pub-lic Domain Review, “a huge injec-tion of some won-der-ful mate-r-i-al into the open dig-i-tal com-mons.” Already, the Fol-ger has begun adding images to Wiki-me-dia Com-mons for use free and open use in Wikipedia and else-where on the web. And should you some-how man-age, through some vora-cious feat of dig-i-tal con-sump-tion, to exhaust this trea-sure hold of images, you need not fear—they’ll be adding more and more as time goes on.
Relat-ed Con-tent:
Read All of Shakespeare’s Plays Free Online, Cour-tesy of the Fol-ger Shake-speare Library
The Met-ro-pol-i-tan Muse-um of Art Puts 400,000 High-Res Images Online & Makes Them Free to Use
Free Online Shake-speare Cours-es: Primers on the Bard from Oxford, Har-vard, Berke-ley & More
Josh Jones is a writer and musi-cian based in Durham, NC. Fol-low him at @jdmagness
I’m look-ing for pub-lic domain pho-tos of Civ-il Rights lead-ers and oth-er promi-nent African-Amer-i-can lead-ers and celebri-ties for a book I’m writ-ing. Do you have some of these pho-tos on file? Peo-ple like: Adam Clay-ton Pow-ell, Gen-er-als Ben O. Davis, Sr. & Jr., Clara Luper, etc.