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Henry Clay Folger (1857-1930) was president of Standard Oil of New York, a collector of Shakespeareana, and founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Family 4 The Folger Shakespeare Library 5 Other 6 Death 7 Writings 8 External References

Henry Clay Folger was born in New York City on June 18, 1857 to Henry C. Folger of Nantucket, MA and Eliza Jane (Clark) Folger of New York. He was a first cousin six times removed of Benjamin Franklin and a nephew of J. A. Folger, the founder of Folgers Coffee.

He prepared at Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, New York. He then attended Amherst College where he was member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1879. After Amherst, he attended Columbia Law School from 1879 to 1881, and was admitted to the bar in 1881.

Beginning in 1881 he worked for Standard Oil Company, which was owned by Charles Pratt, the father of his Adelphi and Amherst classmate Charles Millard Pratt. He retired in 1923, by which time he was the president of Standard Oil of New York. Folger was succeeded by Herbert L. Pratt, another son of Charles Pratt.

Folger married Emily Clara Jordan on October 6, 1885, whom he had met through the Pratts. She was born about 1859 and was educated at Vassar College.

He was an avid collector of Shakespeareana. Toward the end of World War I, he and his wife began searching for a location for his Shakespeare library, but they could not find a location to their liking until 1928, when Congress passed a resolution allowing use of the land in Washington where the Folger Library now stands.

The cornerstone of the library was laid in 1930, but he died soon afterward. The bulk of his fortune was left in trust, with Amherst College as administrator, for the library. The library opened on April 23, 1932 (believed to be Shakespeare's birthday).

Folger was a trustee of the Hamilton Trust Company, Brooklyn, New York; and a director of Seaboard National Bank in New York. In 1914 he was an awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Amherst.

He died on June 11, 1930. His wife, Emily died in 1936.

Folger wrote Petroleum, its Production and Products and many articles on Shakespeare and Shakespeareana.

• Family tree of Henry Clay Folger
• Relation to Benjamin Franklin