in the early 20th century henry folger one of the leaders of standard oil of new jersey and his wife emily amassed the world's finest collection of shakespeare's works shakespeare's scholarship and related artifacts. they owned for example more than a quarter of the first folios in existence. all of this piled up in the folgers brooklyn townhouse eventually the folgers decided to establish a lab a library to make the collection available. after considering several locations including london and stratford henry folger said quote i finally concluded i would give it to washington for i in american excuse me over eight years henry folger quietly purchased a block of townhouses near the capitol building. but there was a problem. it turned out that the federal government was about to acquire the same property by eminent domain. folger sprang to work. he persuaded congress that locating a great shakespeare library on the site. would benefit the nation. in 1928 while considering a bill acquiring property for the library of congress congress modified the bill to allow folger to retain the pro