Printing Press Demonstrations

In the Shakespeare Exhibition Hall, you can see a printing press similar to the one that printed the First Folio, the first published collection of Shakespeare’s plays. To learn more about this press and to see it in action, join us during Frost Fair for printing press demonstrations. See a full list of days and times at the bottom of this page.

About the printing press

Press builder Alan May based this press on a description in Joseph Moxon’s landmark book Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing (1683), the first English-language printing manual.

In the Shakespeare Exhibition Hall, the press is located next to the display of the Folger’s 82 copies of the First Folio—the collection of Shakespeare’s plays without which 18 plays might have been lost.