First Folio!
The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare

Part of an international initiative marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the exhibition will feature a First Folio open to the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy in Hamlet. Unique to Tulane’s presentation will be a rare quarto of the Shakespearean tragedy on loan from Tulane parent and exhibition supporter Stuart Rose.

In addition to the Newcomb Art Museum exhibition, visitors will have the opportunity to trace across campus an “archival circuit” of rare materials informing an array of special topics: the history of book publication in Shakespeare’s age at Howard-Tilton Library Special Collections; Shakespeare and race at the Amistad Research Center; and Shakespeare and gender at the Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Library Special Collections.

A distinctive New Orleans’ jazz funeral will kick off the campus-wide initiative. Complete with music provided by Dr. Michael White and the Liberty Brass Band, this special parade will honor and remember the greatest playwright the world has known.

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 and by the generous support of Google.org, Vinton and Sigrid Cref, the British Council, and other generous donors.  Produced in association with the American Library Association and Cincinnati Museum Center.

The exhibition at the Newcomb Art Museum has been made possible in part by the School of Liberal Arts of Tulane University.

Learn more about this initiative, related programs, and resources at firstfolio.tulane.edu.