First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library

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Published just seven years after his death, the book called  Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies—now known as the “First Folio”—is the only source of 18 of Shakespeare’s 38 plays, including The Tempest, Macbeth, Twelfth Night and As You Like It. In 2016, multiple copies of this original edition will tour the nation as the exhibition First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library. Part of the international events in 2016 commemorating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, First Folio! will make its first stop here in Eugene, offering visitors a chance to see the book itself, open to Hamlet’s famous “To Be or Not To Be” monologue.” As the winning Oregon host site, the JSMA will offer free admission for the duration of the exhibition.

Additional materials from the UO Libraries Special Collections and University Archives add context to the exhibition. These include the second and fourth folios of Shakespeare’s collected works, the first folio of the works of playwright Ben Jonson, and illustrations for an edition of The Tempest by English artist Walter Crane.

First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library, is a national traveling exhibition organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, to commemorate the 400^th anniversary in 2016 of Shakespeare’s death. It is produced in association with the American Library Association and the Cincinnati Museum Center. First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library, has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor, and by the support of Google.org, Vinton and Sigrid Cerf, and other generous donors.

The JSMA’s presentation is supported by the Kingsley Weatherhead Undergraduate Shakespeare Fund in the Department of English, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Division of Undergraduate Studies, the Oregon Humanities Center’s Endowment for Public Outreach in the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities, and the Departments of English and Theatre Arts. Additional support has been provided by the City of Eugene Hult Center for the Performing Arts, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives.

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