The Folger houses the world's largest Shakespeare collection and rare materials from the early modern period (1500-1750). Emily Folger wrote of her belief that the poet is one of our best sources, one of the wells from which we Americans draw our national thought, our faith, and our hope. It as this deep connection between Shakespeare and America that led the Folgers to establish the library in 1932. We were commissioned to do a two-year photographic study of the Library which resulted in our 2018 book Photographing Shakespeare: The Folger Shakespeare Library. The conservation department helps preserve the literature of Shakespeare's era to protect against the ravages of time and neglect. This sequence shows an archivist using intelligent hands to examine the condition of an ancient manuscript for its conservation.