In 1931, Horace Howard Furness, Jr. and his wife, Louise Brooks Winsor Furness, gave to the Penn Libraries through a bequest a collection of Shakespeare materials that had been amassed by Horace and his father, Horace Howard Furness — known today as the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (Furness Shakespeare Library). As part of this estate gift, the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund was established to maintain and enhance the collection, including the acquisition of additional materials relating to the study of Shakespeare and other Tudor and Stuart dramatists.