Library and Kinney Center Team Up for Shakespeare Unbound: A Campuswide Special Exhibit Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio

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Shakespeare Unbound: A Campuswide Special Exhibit, a series of exhibits and events curated and hosted by the W. E. B. Du Bois Library and the Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, is now on display through May 2024. Curated by Joe Black, Kirstin Kay, and Marjorie Rubright, the exhibit marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio of William Shakespeare’s plays.

At the W. E. B. Du Bois Library, the Shakespeare Unbound exhibit asks: what happens when Shakespeare appears in fragments or as momentary flashes in history? With selections from the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center, the works of W. E. B. Du Bois, Phillis Wheatley, and others are joined in conversation with William Shakespeare. The exhibit will showcase selections from Shakespeare’s First Folio, Shakespeare’s Poems (1640), and a diverse array of materials that trace the history of Shakespeare’s plays—on page, stage, and film—from the Restoration through the Twentieth Century. The exhibit also features the 1773 edition of African-American poet Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects. This copy was the two-millionth addition to the library, having been donated by former Chancellor Randolph Bromery. 

Nandita S. Mani, Dean of University Libraries, says, “We are thrilled to partner with the Kinney Center on this exhibit, particularly as it showcases the depth and breadth of the materials available in UMass Amherst Libraries’ special collections. Being able to see Shakespeare in conversation with Du Bois and others across the centuries will allow our patrons and visitors to experience these literary figures in a new way, one that underscores the value of the humanities.”

At the Kinney Center, located at 650 E. Pleasant St., in Amherst, A Noble Fragment is the first of many exhibits that will rotate throughout the academic year. It tells the story of the print revolution in Renaissance Europe and the emergence of the book in its modern form. The exhibit’s title derives from publications in the 1920s that marketed leaves from damaged and disbound copies of the Gutenberg Bible (1454-1455) and Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623), iconic artifacts in the history of printing, under the title A Noble Fragment. The fragments of this exhibit remind us that books are unmade as well as made. They come apart over time, but they are also often reassembled and repurposed in ways that leave traces of that history on their pages. The exhibition concludes with a copy of Shakespeare’s Second Folio (1632), an important version of the most iconic gathering of “noble fragments” in English literature.

Professor Marjorie Rubright, Director of the Kinney Center, says, “We are looking forward to an extraordinary year at the Kinney Center where artists, students, scholars, and the public will pursue the unexpected legacies of Shakespeare in our world today. Drawing on the treasures in this collection, a series of public exhibits will dovetail with artists-in-residence, hands-on workshops, and scholarly programming to explore connections between the early modern world (c. 1400-1700) and our own, including: Shakespeare and the Renaissance of the Earth (Winter 2024), Glacial Shakespeare (Spring 2024), and Shakespeare in the Age of Mass Incarceration (Spring 2024).” 

Fall events at the Kinney Center include: 

Shakespeare Unbound is made possible through a private collection of rare books generously on loan to the University in honor of the collector’s life-long friendship with former UMass Amherst Professor Pieter Elgers. 

For more information, please visit sites.google.com/umass.edu/shakespeare-unbound.

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