Who was 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 .

Did Henry Clay Folger live in poverty?

Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library Future titan of industry Henry Clay Folger Jr. lived the first part of his life in Dickensian poverty. Born in Brooklyn in 1857, he used essay contests to pay for his education at Amherst College, where he hand-washed his own laundry to save money and still could not afford coal for heat.

Did Henry Clay Folger own a rare book?

Folger was always a collector of sorts: He saved every book he ever read and from childhood assembled meticulous scrapbooks of theater tickets and other ephemera. But he’d never owned a rare book. Henry Clay Folger Jr. circa 1910. The following year, Folger would become president of the Standard Oil Company of New York.