The Folger’s major, free exhibition space reopened to the public in 2024 to showcase its collections.
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC is the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare texts and materials in the world. In December 2024, a display case on editing Twelfth Night was installed in the Folger’s free public exhibition gallery, guest curated by Dr Simon Smith, Associate Professor at the Shakespeare Institute. He is currently researching the performance history of Twelfth Night for his new Cambridge Shakespeare Edition of the play, with the support of a Folger Short-Term Fellowship and a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant. The display case explores the play’s history on page and stage, and some of the questions it raises for editors.
Dr Smith said: “it has been an immense privilege to be able to share some of my findings from the Folger’s unparalleled collection with a wider audience. The new exhibition space, opened in 2024 after a major refurbishment, is a wonderful resource that supports the mission of the Folger – and indeed the Shakespeare Institute – to open up the cultural history of Shakespeare for everyone. I hope many visitors will be able to explore the exhibition in the coming months”.
The Twelfth Night case includes a nineteenth-century costume drawing, an actor’s part (or cue-script) for Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and the earliest edition of the play to use the speech prefix “Cesario”. These documents introduce the play’s rich interpretive history onstage, its textual challenges, and its material forms. Dr Smith would like to thank the conservation team, Renate Mesmer, Kathryn Kenny, and Rachel Bissonnette; conservation fellow Charlotte Starnes; and especially curator Johnna Champion, for collaborating with him on the conception, design and installation of the display.
Associate Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama
Shakespearean and early modern topics, especially drama; playhouse culture; music and literature.
