Discovery Museum to host Shakespeare's First Folio Exhibition

The Lake County Discovery Museum has been selected as the host site for the state of Illinois for "First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare," a national traveling exhibition of the Shakespeare First Folio, one of the world's most treasured books.

The exhibition will be available to the public Feb. 3-28, 2016.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, in partnership with Cincinnati Museum Center and the American Library Association, is touring a First Folio of Shakespeare in 2016 to all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

"It is an honor for Lake County to have been selected as the Illinois host site," said Katherine Hamilton-Smith, director of public affairs and development for the Lake County Forest Preserve District. "The exhibition will provide an important, once-in-a-lifetime humanities opportunity for our residents, and will bring significant economic impact to the county because of the exhibition's likely draw of visitors into the county from the Chicago region, downstate Illinois, and southern Wisconsin."

Many of Shakespeare's plays, which were written to be performed, were not published during his lifetime. The First Folio is the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. It was published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death. Two of Shakespeare's fellow actors compiled 36 of his plays, hoping to preserve them for future generations. Eighteen of Shakespeare's plays, including "Macbeth," "Julius Caesar," "Twelfth Night," "The Tempest," "Antony and Cleopatra," "The Comedy of Errors," and "As You Like It," appear for the first time in print in the First Folio, and would otherwise have been lost.

"The First Folio is the book that gave us Shakespeare. Between its covers, we discover his most famous characters - Hamlet, Desdemona, Cordelia, Macbeth, Romeo, Juliet and hundreds of others - speaking words that continue to move and inspire us," said Michael Witmore, director of the Folger Shakespeare Library. "Shakespeare tells the human story like no one else. He connects us to each other, to our history, and to themes and ideas that touch us every day. We are delighted that we can share this precious resource with people everywhere, from San Diego, California to Gurabo, Puerto Rico, from Eugene, Oregon, to Duluth, Minnesota."

The Folger Shakespeare Library holds 82 copies of the First Folio, by far the largest collection in the world and more than a third of the 233 known copies in the world today. It is believed 750 copies were originally printed. The Shakespeare First Folio is one of the most valuable printed books in the world.

Accompanying the rare book will be a multi-panel exhibition exploring the significance of Shakespeare, then and now, with additional digital content and interactive activities. During the exhibition, the Lake County Discovery Museum is planning numerous programs for the public and families around the First Folio exhibition.

The Lake County Discovery Museum is on Route 176 just west of Fairfield Road and east of Wauconda in Lakewood Forest Preserve. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults, $3 for seniors ages 62 and older and students ages 18 to 25, and $2.50 for youth ages 4 to 17. Follow the Museum on Facebook and Twitter @LakeCoMuseum or visit LCFPD.org/Museum for updates on "First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare."

Folger Shakespeare Library is a world-renowned center for scholarship, learning, culture, and the arts. It is home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection and a primary repository for rare materials from the early modern period (1500-1750). Visit www.folger.edu.