October 5, 2023 to February 10, 2023
How William Became Shakespeare: Four Hundred Years of the First Folio
This year commemorates the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, which was the first gathered collection of Shakespeare’s comedies, histories, and tragedies. It was published in 1623, seven years after his death. Without the First Folio, 18 plays, including As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and The Tempest, might have been lost to readers forever.
This exhibition, co-curated by Special Collections Librarian Cecily Dyer and Shannon Kelley, Ph.D., director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and associate professor of English, College of Arts and Sciences, Fairfield University, will feature a selection of the Shakespearean collection, donated to the library’s Special Collections in 1974, including its partial First Folio. The exhibition will examine what Shakespeare has meant to readers and scholars over time.
Click here to read about the exhibition and companion programs.