Way back in 2008, the Laramie County Library hosted the traveling exhibit Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World. The Wyoming State Museum agreed to be the Library’s partner and their staff curated a wonderful complementary exhibit of the Museum’s artifacts that highlighted the impact Franklin’s inventions and ideas had on Wyoming. The curators installed the artifacts in the Library’s display cases for the duration of the traveling exhibit, helping make the exhibit a more enriching experience for all who visited.
This September, the Library returns the favor and is the Museum’s partner as they host First Folio: The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library September 7-30. The exhibit is touring through each of the 50 states. The actual folio will be on exhibit, something you won’t want to miss!
The Wyoming State Museum has been in planning for this exhibit for well over a year, so your library has been planning our part, too. Throughout the Library you’ll find book displays of Shakespearean works, Elizabethan history and culture, along with some interesting, maybe even surprising, titles influenced by the Bard. Take a look in our entrance gallery display cases and those on the second and third floors for quotes – and a few insults – found in First Folio plays. The display case by the elevator on the 1st floor will have a special exhibit, so make sure you stop and take a look!
We’re very excited about the many programs we’re hosting at the Library for people of all ages. We’ve got professionals from the New York theater world who’ve performed Shakespeare coming to lead workshops, and musicians from the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra are presenting a musical excursion to the England in which Shakespeare lived and worked.
Pick up a library calendar and look for the feather icon that denotes First Folio events. Take a look at the museum’s online calendar of events – there’s enough to keep you immersed in Elizabethan England all month long!
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, to commemorate the 400th anniversary in 2016 of Shakespeare’s death. It is produced in association with the American Library Association and the Cincinnati Museum Center. 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, The Lord Browne of Madingley, Vinton and Sigrid Cerf, British Council, Stuart and Mimi Rose, Albert and Shirley Small, and other generous donors.