Today was my second day visiting Washington DC. Brandy is in Michigan with her family, and I’m here doing some research. I had initially planned on spending most of my time at the Folger Shakespeare Library, but have actually spent a lot more of my time working at the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is amazing; it has just about any book you could imagine! I’m really interested in illustrations and paintings related to Shakespearean drama and the Library of Congress will let me scan the images; the Folger, though, is very strict about that and will not let me scan hardly anything at all. So I’ve spent most of the last two days at the Library of Congress working through illustrated volumes of Shakespeare, reading and scanning away.
Today I focused on looking at the many different volumes of Charles and Mary Lamb’s “Tales from Shakespeare”. This collection of Shakespeare inspired stories was originally penned in 1807; Charles wrote the tragedies, and Mary, his sister, wrote the comedies. After its original publication, a new edition was printed every few years, sometimes more than one new edition in a year. Oftentimes, the new editions proudly sported new illustrations, so these volumes have become an important source now of Shakespearean illustration for me. I worked through some twenty odd volumes today, and still have over a dozen left to work through when I return to work in the morning.
Its fun work for me, and I am having a great time here. I just wish I had more time; its all passing by so fast!
