![]() ![]() May 21: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed by Wheeling Jesuit University, Duquesne University’s Red Masquers, and Wheeling Central High School. Children ages 6-8 and their families are introduced to Shakespeare through language and activities. May 14: First Folio Family Program: Have Fun with Hamlet. May 7: Enjoy a madrigal dinner including period music, dancing, food, and drink. There are a myriad of planned events, but here are a few where you’ll definitely find me: While you wait for the arrival of the First Folio, you’ll want to check out Oglebay Institute’s May schedule, as there is something entertaining for everyone. ![]() In addition to the displays, children will have a chance to act out Shakespearean scenes with props, and a poetry corner will give visitors opportunities to compose their own pieces. Pieces like this from the collections of local libraries and universities will accompany the First Folio exhibit showcasing the beginnings of bookmaking and printmaking. ![]() Elbin Library at West Liberty University, displays a rare 15th Century Book of Hours. While a folio is a book in which the paper has been folded in half once, this book of hours is called a quarto the paper has been folded in half twice. The illustrations are stunning and brilliantly colored. It’s handwritten and was printed before 1501. In addition to the First Folio, the library at West Liberty University has loaned for display a Christian devotional book from the Middle Ages known as a Book of Hours. You really have to see old books to appreciate them. Additionally, you’ll find local attorney Jeremy Charles McCamic’s book, Classic Comic Ridicule in the Comedies of Shakespeare. Oglebay, was instrumental in planning that celebration a century ago. You’ll also see a publication from a masque that was performed in 1916 in New York City for the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Some of his works are on display, as is a publication from an 1875 meeting of the club. He wrote several books on the bard and served as president of the Shakespeare Club of Wheeling. William Leighton, Jr., whose father was a renowned glass chemist and who settled in Wheeling to continue that work, had more than a passing interest in Shakespeare. Kelsy Traeger, Museums Curator at Oglebay Institute and designer Neal Warren install interpretive panels that accompany the First Folio. Of course, when you make your way into the exhibit hall, you’ll see the First Folio (on display under a dim light to preserve the ink), but you’ll also have the opportunity to explore Wheeling connections to Shakespeare, and I was surprised to learn that there are several. Though the folio hasn’t arrived yet, and the exhibit won’t open until May 9, the hardworking crew at Oglebay Institute is busy preparing for its arrival. Kelsy Traeger is the curator of museums at Oglebay Institute, and she gave me a preview of what’s to come. I went up to the Mansion Museum to see what’s happening behind the scenes. The First Folio tour will visit all 50 states, and Oglebay Institute’s Mansion Museum has been chosen to showcase it here in West Virginia. Though 750 copies were originally printed, only 233 survive today, and each one contains minor differences due to the nature of printing at the time. Additionally, the folio includes an accurate portrait of the bard. But thanks to this book, 18 of Shakespeare’s plays that had never appeared in print and would have otherwise been lost were preserved, including As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Henry VI, Henry VIII, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and The Winter’s Tale. The 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare … is the earliest folio consisting only of an author’s plays.”įolios were expensive to print and therefore were usually limited to history, law, and religious subjects. According to the Folger Shakespeare Library, “Seven years after Shakespeare’s death, John Heminge and Henry Condell, his friends and colleagues in the King’s Men, collected almost all of his plays in a folio edition. The First Folio is a book that was printed after Shakespeare’s death. If you’ve been listening to the rumblings coming from Oglebay Institute lately, you may know that something big is coming to Wheeling: the First Folio of William Shakespeare. ![]() By Laura Jackson Roberts OI Blogger Explores the First Folio of Shakespeare & Learns Wheeling Connections to the Bard ![]()
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