First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare

Event

Shakespeare's First Folio, 1623

On Friday, May 6, 2016, the ESU Research Triangle Branch hosted a gala exhibit preview and private cocktail reception at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. The evening was a grand celebration of the opening of the exhibit of a 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, on national tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. The First Folio contains 36 of Shakespeare's plays—18 of which had never been published previously—and as such is one of the most influential books in history. Without the First Folio, "Macbeth," "Julius Caesar," "Twelfth Night," "The Tempest," and "As You Like It" would have been lost to history.

The exhibit, commemorating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, was organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library and produced in association with the American Library Association and the Cincinnati Museum Center. It is funded, in part, by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by the support of Google.org, Vinton and Sigrid Cerf, the British Council, and other generous donors.

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