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In the winter of 1623, a copy of Shakespeare’s newly printed First Folio arrived at the Bodleian Library from London. In the 1660s it left the Library and was lost from view until 1905, when an undergraduate from Magdalen College brought a tattered copy of an early Shakespeare Folio into the Library for advice on its binding. Inspired by the research of Emma Smith (Hertford College, University of Oxford) into the book’s history, Sprint for Shakespeare (http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/) was a public engagement and funding campaign. Through print, broadcast, and social media, it promoted engagement with Shakespeare, the First Folio, and current research. It raised £20,000 to conserve, photograph, and publish a high quality digital facsimile online, freely available to anyone with internet access. It continues to promote use and understanding of the First Folio and its place in Shakespeare studies, amongst other activities running workshops for teachers and actors. This talk was presented as part of the University of Oxford's engage: social media michaelmas series, 12 November 2013.
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Evolving Engagement: the many lives of the Bodleian First Folio
Pip Willcox
Digital Editor, Bodleian Libraries
The First Folio of Shakespeare’s Plays
The Bodleian First Folio
1905: the Turbutt Family Folio
2012: Sprint for Shakespeare
Reflections
Today
1623
A publishing consortium of actors and printers
36 plays
18 of them never before printed
The First Folio of Shakespeare’s Plays
Bodleian, Arch G c.7
The First Folio of Shakespeare’s Plays
1623
The Bodleian: the “public library”
By agreement with the Stationers’ Company?
Presented by the printers?
Bound by William Wildgoose in Oxford
On shelf at Arts End of Duke Humfrey’s Library
The Bodleian First Folio: an unexplained arrival
Superceded by the “duplicate” Third Folio (1663/4), it left the Library, perhaps:
Under Thomas Lockey, Librarian 1660—1665 (“not altogether fit for that office”)1
“Rcd of Mr Ri: Davis for Superfluous Library Bookes [...] £24”(Bodleian accounts, 1663—1664)
Under John Hudson, Librarian, 1701 — 1719 “the bookseller”; (“negligent if not incapable”)2
The Bodleian First Folio: an unexplained departure
1. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/168982. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14034
...
The Bodleian First Folio: the lost years
1905
Gladwyn Turbutt, a Magdalen College undergraduate, brings the book to the Library for binding advice
Falconer Madan, Deputy Librarian, and Strickland Gibson, Assistant Librarian, recognize William Wildgoose’s binding and the lost Bodleian First Folio
The Bodleian First Folio: a prodigal returns
The Bodleian First Folio: a prodigal returns
The Turbutts offer to sell the Folio to the Library at its market price
Talk at the Bibliographical Society
Madan, Strickland & Turbutt author a pamphlet
An anonymous offer of £3,000 (by Henry Clay Folger, Standard Oil)
The Turbutts give the Library time to find £3,000
The Bodleian First Folio: a prodigal returns
E.W.B. Nicholson: a thorough archive
An appeal to “Oxford men”
A leader in The Times
Tens of donors
Average donation: 1 guinea
A Funding Campaign: “saved for the nation”
2011: Emma Smith lectures & inspires
Sprint for Shakespeare
Rare BooksConservationImaging BDLSSCommunicationsDevelopment Office
A Funding Campaign: Sprint for Shakespeare
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
A Funding Campaign: Sprint for Shakespeare
HELP US OPEN THE BODLEIAN’S FIRST COLLECTED EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS TO THE WORLDShakespeare’s First Folio is one of the greatest treasures in the Bodleian collection, and we would like your help opening it up for anyone anywhere in the world to enjoy exploring its pages. Now, in the year of the Cultural Olympiad, we invite Shakespeare lovers and Bodleian supporters to join our Sprint campaign to digitize and publish our First Folio online for the benefit of everyone, from schoolchildren to scholars.
By making a contribution of any size – from as little as £20 per page – your support will enable us to publish a speech, a scene, an act or even a whole play of the First Folio online, on a specially created website, which will inspire readers today and in the future.
The Sprint for Shakespeare campaign aims to raise £20,000 through a large number of donations of all sizes. Any surplus beyond the target will go towards future online projects to open up the Bodleian collections.
All supporters of this campaign will be recognised on a special page on this website, with the opportunity to dedicate their gift to someone who inspires them. Like the patrons and subscribers of books in the past, the names will live on with this digitized book through this website.
FOR
Shakeßpeare
TO FIND OUT MORE AND LEARN
HOW TO BE INVOLVED VISIT OUR WEBSITEhttp://shakespeare. bodleian.ox.ac.uk
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
August — December 2012
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
“I am very happy to help the Bodleian Libraries raise funds so that the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays may be read and studied online; this will be a wonderful achievement.”
Sprint for Shakespeare: champions
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Sprint for Shakespeare: champions
“To bring the First Folio, the great authoritative publication, to everyone in the world via digitization is as noble and magnificent a project as can be imagined and I whole-heartedly support the Bodleian and all those endorsing this marvellous enterprise.”
— Stephen Fry
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Sprint for Shakespeare: champions“The idea that anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time, might be able to access the Bodleian copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio is absolutely thrilling.
“It’s an extraordinary gift to lovers of his plays and poems; a legacy for us all.”
— Tom Hiddleston
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Sprint for Shakespeare: champions
“The digitization of the Bodleian copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio is a project of huge importance.
“It is an extremely exciting enterprise to which I am pleased to give my support.”
— Sir Peter Hall
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Sprint for Shakespeare: champions
— Greg Doran
“The Shakespeare First Folio is one of the Bodleian’s great possessions.
“If the project to digitize it can be realized then everyone can have unfettered access to this marvellous book.”
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Sprint for Shakespeare: public engagement
Conservation visits
Blog
Teachers’ workshop
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/the-project/supporters/
Sprint for Shakespeare: public engagement
Hundreds of donors from around the world
Image by Heikenwaelder Hugo/Wikimedia Commons
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Sprint for Shakespeare: Rare Books and Conservation
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Sprint for Shakespeare: Imaging and Hand-Printing
http://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
The Bodleian First Folio: a digital facsimile
Searchable by play, act, and scene
http://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
The Bodleian First Folio: a digital facsimile
Page-turning
Zoom
Download
Creative Commons attribution license
http://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
The Bodleian First Folio: the future
An anonymous donor
Digital edition
Searchable text
Downloads of individual plays
The Bodleian First Folio: afterwordsGladwyn Turbutt: architect; died at the second battle of Ypres,
1915
Falconer Madan: Librarian, 1912—1919; “one of the last scholar-librarians” 1
Strickland Gibson: Keeper of the Archives, 1927 — 1945; “father of conservation”
Henry Clay Folger: founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library
Edward Williams Byron Nicholson: Librarian, 1881— 1912; “almost the refounder of the Library” 2
1. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/410472. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35227
http://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
The Bodleian First Folio: reflections
It takes time
Collaborate
Inspiration is everywhere
Be inventive: performance, feedback, revision
Pip WillcoxDigital Editor, Bodleian Libraries
@pipwillcox
http://shakespeare.bodleian.ox.ac.ukhttp://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
