September 1 – 25, 2016

Opening Reception: September 1, 4:30–6:30 PM

Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night. These famous plays and 15 others by Shakespeare would probably have been lost to us without the First Folio. Published in 1623, the First Folio is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, and only 233 copies are known today. This year, to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Folger Shakespeare Library is sending a First Folio to every state in the United States, and we have been selected for Connecticut. Join us in September 2016 in celebrating the greatest playwright of the English language with this exhibit from the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. (shakespeare.uconn.edu/what-is-the-first-folio/)

First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library, is a national traveling exhibition organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and produced in association with the American Library Association and the Cincinnati Museum Center. First Folio! has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor, and by the support of Google.org, Vinton and Sigrid Cerf, The British Council, and other generous donors. (shakespeare.uconn.edu)

Booking a School Trip: School tours can be scheduled and will include UConn faculty speaking about various aspects of the First Folio and Shakespeare in addition to a museum tour.  School tours are available Tuesday through Friday at 10:30am, 11:30am and 1pm.*  Call the Benton Museum at 860-486-4520 or submit this form to book your trip today!

*Self-guided tour groups will not be admitted during scheduled times of 10:30, 11:30, and 1pm. Groups of 12 or more must schedule their visit in advance or tours may be turned away due to overcrowding.

Tours at other times will be self-guided.

Featured Image Credit:  Title page with Droeshout engraving of Shakespeare. From the Folger Shakespeare Library.

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