Report: “Is Shakespeare’s DNA Hiding in the Folger Library’s Vault? ‘Project Dustbunny’ Aims to Find Out”

From the Washingtonian:

The Folger Shakespeare Library’s underground storage facility stretches a full block beneath the building, protected by a nine-inch-thick steel bank-vault door. It houses about 260,000 historically significant books, along with manuscripts, documents, and even costumes saved from 19th-century productions. But could the Capitol Hill research library—the largest collection devoted to the Bard in the world—also contain, quite literally, Shakespeare himself?

That possibility is the longest of long shots, but it’s one potential outcome of an ongoing effort at the Folger dubbed Project Dustbunny—so named because it involves analyzing human DNA and proteins harvested from dirt inside the Folger’s old books.

Learn More, Read the Complete Article (approx. 1600 words)

See Also: In Rare Books, Centuries-Old Proteins Can Reveal the Past (via Shakespeare and Beyond/Folger.edu)

See Also: Radio Program: Did Shakespeare Have Acne? What Historic Texts Can Tell Us About The Past (via WAMU)

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