Blog Posts
President Senghor’s Anniversary
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Senegalese President Léopold Senghor’s death, on December 7, 2021 Yves Thréard wrote an article in Le Figaro entitled “Il y a vingt ans, disparaissait...
Henry Clay Folger and Emily Jordan Folger receive honorary degrees from Amherst College
One hundred and seven years ago, in 1914, Henry Folger received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Amherst College. The citation read: “Henry Clay Folger, a graduate of this college in 1879,...
Enrico Massi, Italian aviator, dies giving a flying lesson in El Salvador, 1923
Enrico Massi is an important enough figure in the history of El Salvador to have had a postage stamp issued in his name: in 1983 a ten-centavo stamp in the series “Salvadoran Air Force 50th...
Henry Clay Folger’s Deltiological Profile, Part II
We pick up from the series of picture postcards Henry Folger sent to his wife Emily in Brooklyn during his Standard Oil Company business trips to western states in 1910. The Truckee River flows...
On the trail of Folgers (or is it Folger’s?) Coffee
Some of us more than others pay attention to punctuation: Folgers or Folger’s? However, we all recognize a rhyme when we hear it: The best part of waking upIs Folgers in your cup! My first major...
Henry Clay Folger’s Deltiological Profile, Part I
While on business trips out west in 1910, Standard Oil Co. executive Henry Folger sends postcards to his wife. The messages are hilarious!
Henry Folger never knew of the First Folio that surfaced in France this year
In forty years of book collecting, Henry Clay Folger managed to collect eighty-two of the 800 or so First Folios containing thirty-six Shakespeare plays compiled by two of the Bard’s actor friends,...
Shakespeare Collector Emily Jordan Folger and First Lady Grace Goodhue Coolidge
Emily Folger née Jordan was a bluestocking: an educated, intellectual woman with a scholarly bent. In 1875, she followed her two sisters to Vassar College.
Postcards of Egypt
The news came from Washington DC in a 1982 State Department cable signed SHULTZ: “STEPHEN GRANT IS ASSIGNED TO CAIRO AS EDUCATION OFFICER.”
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