Exhibitions

First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare

February 4 - 28, 2016

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. 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; the museum was selected as the venue for the Folio’s display in Kansas. Join us in 2016 as K-State honors the greatest playwright of the English language with this exhibit from the world’s largest Shakespeare collection.

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: Exploring the human endeavor, and by the generous support of Google.org and Vinton and Sigrid Cerf.

Due to space constraints, we request groups of 10 or more pre-book a tour by calling 785-532-7718 or emailing klwalk@ksu.edu.

For information about guided tours, including school groups of students grades 5-12, review the information sheet (PDF) or contact the Beach Museum's Education Department at 785-532-7718 or by emailing Senior Education coordinator Kathrine Schlageck at klwalk@ksu.edu.

Shakespeare in the Little Apple

The first folio’s visit is accompanied by a semester-long series of campus and community events. This collaborative celebration of Shakespeare is made possible by K-State English Department, K-State Libraries, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, McCain Auditorium and Manhattan community partners.

Visit k-state.edu/shakespeare400 for a full list of spring events