USU Shakespeare Exhibit Looks at 'Unruly Women'
Utah State University's University Libraries has opened a new exhibit that looks at Shakespeare’s "Unruly Woman." Also on display is an original partial Second Folio that is housed in Special Collections and Archives. The folio dates from 1632.
The year 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. In commemoration of this significant event, the Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library has mounted an exhibition entitled “Unruly Women: Women in Shakespeare’s World.” The Library will also have on display its original 1632 partial Second Folio, along with other 17th-19th century printed works.
Unruly Women explores both the roles women played and the perceptions of women during Shakespeare’s time. Covering topics such as women rulers, female martyrs, midwifery and witchcraft, the exhibit addresses Shakespeare’s incorporation of many of these themes into his own plays.
The USU Library’s partial Second Folio, purchased through the Stanford O. and Shirley A. Cazier Program Endowment Fund in 2014, includes four of Shakespeare’s tragedies: Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, Romeo and Juliet and Coriolanus. It is bound in modern leather with marbled paper and is housed in Special Collections and Archives.
In addition to the Second Folio, other works on display include John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1641) as well as Henry Holland’s Heroologia Anglica (1620).
During the month of October, the Salt Lake City Public Library will also host an original 1623 First Folio. This exhibit is in conjunction with the Folger Shakespeare Library’s First Folio Tour. First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare brings an original First Folio to all 50 states during 2016.
The USU University Library’s exhibition is free and open to the public.
The Unruly Women exhibit panels are located in the Merrill-Cazier Library’s atrium. The rare books are on display in the Hatch Room, located in the Library’s Special Collections and Archives Division on the lower level of the building. These works are available to view Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with late hours until 7 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday. Special Collections is also open on selected Saturdays.
The exhibit will be on display through Dec. 5.
For more information, contact Jennifer Duncan, books curator and interim associate dean for Special Collections, 435-797-8148.
Related links:
USU Special Collections and Archives
Source: University Libraries
Contact: Jennifer Duncan, 435-797-8148
Observant visitors to the exhibit might notice that the display panels are configured in the shape of the Globe Theatre.
The exhibit's interior panels include text and illustrations covering social and cultural elements of Shakespeare’s time and how they relate to the women portrayed in Shakespeare’s texts.
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