Photo credit: Peter Ringenberg; First Folio! at the University of Notre Dame
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Folger Shakespeare Library sent First Folios to all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC. This exhibition celebrates their return to the Folger, and is the largest ever display of First Folios in a single venue.
Seventy-one thousand miles later, and safely back in the Folger’s Great Hall, the eighteen traveling copies of the First Folio (and one understudy), the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, tell their stories–of the half million people they met, the programming to celebrate their visits, the unique attributes of each book, and the overwhelming relevance of the plays they include.
Explore the First Folios Online!
Use the left-hand navigation to learn about a Folio and view highlights from its travels or find the Folio that was closest to you by viewing all the tour stops below.
Part of Meet the Curators
Heather Wolfe is curator of manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library. She has curated numerous Folger exhibitions, most recently Shakespeare, Life of an Icon, and has written widely on early modern manuscripts and the intersections between print and manuscript. She has edited The Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608 (2007), The Literary Career and Legacy of Elizabeth Cary (2007), and Letterwriting in Renaissance England (2004), an exhibition catalog co-written with Alan Stewart. She is principal investigator for EMMO (Early Modern Manuscripts Online), a project to create a free and searchable database of images and transcriptions of early modern manuscripts created in England or written in English.
Caroline Duroselle-Melish is the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Early Modern Books and Prints at the Folger Shakespeare Library. She has worked with a wide range of collections in university and independent rare book libraries, including serving as Rare Book Librarian at the University of Rochester and, most recently, as Assistant Curator at the Houghton Library, Harvard University. She has published on a range of topics associated with early modern printing, including studies of Ulisse Aldrovandi’s library and the trade relations between Frankfurt and Bologna.
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Folger Shakespeare Library sent First Folios to all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC.
AK – Juneau: Alaska State Libraries, Archives and Museums
AL – Montgomery: Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
AR – Conway: University of Central Arkansas with the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre
AZ – Tucson: University of Arizona
CA – San Diego: San Diego Public Library with The Old Globe
CO – Boulder: University of Colorado Boulder
CT – Storrs: University of Connecticut
DC – Washington: Gallaudet University
DE – Newark: University of Delaware
FL – Miami: The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University
GA – Atlanta: Emory University
HI – Honolulu: Kapiolani Community College
IA – Iowa City: The University of Iowa Libraries
ID – Boise: Boise State University
IL – Wauconda: Lake County Discovery Museum
IN – Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
KS – Manhattan: Kansas State University
LA – New Orleans: Tulane University
MD – Annapolis: St. John’s College
ME – Portland: Portland Public Library
MI – Detroit: Wayne State University, Detroit Institute of Arts, and Detroit Public Library
MN – Duluth: University of Minnesota Duluth
MO – Kansas City: Kansas City Public Library
MS – Oxford: University of Mississippi
MT – Missoula: University of Montana
NC – Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of History
ND – Bismarck: State Historical Society of North Dakota
NH – Manchester: Currier Museum of Art
NJ – Madison: Drew University and The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
NM – Santa Fe: New Mexico Museum of Art
NV – Las Vegas: University of Nevada, Las Vegas
NY – New York: New-York Historical Society
OH – Cleveland: Cleveland Public Library
OK – Norman: The Sam Noble Museum
OR – Eugene: Jordan Schnitzer Museum at the University of Oregon
PA – Elizabethtown: Elizabethtown College
PR – Turabo: Museo y Centro de Estudios Humanísticos
RI – Providence: Brown University
SC – Columbia: University of South Carolina Libraries
SD – Vermillion: University of South Dakota and the National Music Museum
TX – College Station: Texas A&M University
UT – Salt Lake City: Salt Lake City Public Library
VA – Charlottesville: University of Virginia
VT – Middlebury: Middlebury College
WA – Seattle: The Seattle Public Library
WI – Madison: University of Wisconsin – Madison
