Boston Public Library to commemorate 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare's Death with two exhibitions in fall 2016

2016 marks the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, and Boston Public Library and the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center will honor the Bard’s lasting legacy with two exhibitions at the Central Library this fall, as well as programming at library locations citywide. Boston Public Library holds one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Shakespeare in a public institution, including the first four folios of his collected works, 45 early quarto editions of individual plays, and thousands of volumes of early source material, commentaries, translations, manuscripts, and more.

“At some point in life, everyone has experienced the work of Shakespeare," said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. "These opportunities at the Boston Public Library give all the chance to learn more about the creative genius of Shakespeare and how his legacy lives on today."

Shakespeare Unauthorized: Experience the original works of “The Bard”

Shakespeare Unauthorized, a major gallery exhibition on view from October 14, 2016 through March 31, 2017, will include extraordinarily rare first and early editions of familiar and beloved plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice, as well as all four Shakespearean folios, most notably the BPL’s own copy of the world-famous First Folio. Through the pages of these precious books, visitors can experience Shakespeare in his original language and spelling, just as he would have been read by book lovers and theater-goers hundreds of years ago.  Shakespeare Unauthorized will take place in the McKim Exhibition Hall on the first floor of the McKim building at the Central Library in Copley Square.

Shakespeare Unauthorized is made possible through the financial support of Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM), a leader in storage and information management services. Based in Boston, Iron Mountain provides charitable grants of funding and in-kind services to cultural and historical preservation projects like Shakespeare Unauthorized all over the world through its Living Legacy Initiative.

”We’re proud to help bring this exhibition to life in our home city of Boston,” said Ty Ondatje, senior vice president, Corporate Responsibility and Chief Diversity Officer at Iron Mountain. “Our philanthropic mission is to preserve and create access to our world’s cultural and historical treasures, those ideas and artifacts that make up the human experience, so that they can be shared and enjoyed by everyone. The works of Shakespeare are the very definition of these shared treasures, informing so much of how we view and talk about today’s world, and we’re extremely excited to underwrite the Library’s exhibition so they can make this collection available to all.”

Shakespeare Unauthorized will contain far more than just books of plays: this exhibition will feature surprising rarities and mysterious objects; scandalous forgeries made by con men and accomplished scholars; books from the luxurious private libraries of early English aristocrats; and memorabilia from four centuries of acting and stagecraft.

“We are indebted to Iron Mountain for their leadership grant to the Boston Public Library Foundation, and for partnering with the BPL in displaying its extensive collection of Shakespeare materials,” said Boston Public Library Interim President David Leonard.  “This exhibition of rare and invaluable items promises to provide an inspiring adventure for all who visit. We are also very grateful for the critical funding provided by The Boston Foundation, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library, for curatorial and conservation work that supported this project.”

Shakespeare’s World: Charting a course through the settings of Shakespeare’s works

The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, an independent, non-profit institution, will feature a complementary exhibition Shakespeare’s World opening September 3, 2016 and running through February 2017, with associated programming to be announced. William Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, and histories take place in a number of fascinating and often picturesque locations throughout Europe, Asia and Africa, in eras from classical times to the Renaissance.  In this exhibition of forty maps, images and three-dimensional objects, visitors will visit these locales by seeing items from Shakespeare’s lifetime, learning about the world in the time of Shakespeare, and understanding the symbolic role that geography held to the dramas.

Kronborg Castle in Denmark, known as Elsinore in Hamlet, will be highlighted in the exhibition.  A 1629 Dutch map depicting the Danish Kingdom, along with a vignette illustrating “Elsenor,” will be on display.  Complementing this map will be an original print of “Cronenburg” from Samuel von Pufendorf’s 1696 historical atlas.  Geographically-significant quotes from the dramas will set the stage for the visitors, such as Marcellus’ line from Hamlet, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (Act 1, scene 4).  Visitors will also see Heinrich Bünting’s famous “Clover leaf map” from 1581 and Abraham Ortelius’ 1570 edition of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum.

“This is an unusual opportunity for visitors to see rarely displayed treasures from the Boston Public Library’s collection, as well as prized maps from the collection of our founder Norman B. Leventhal, all helping The Bard’s world come alive to visitors,“ said Connie Chin, President of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center.

Related public programs will take place citywide and a schedule is currently in development.

About BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY 
Boston Public Library has a Central Library, twenty-four branches, map center, business library, and a website filled with digital content and services. Established in 1848, the Boston Public Library has pioneered public library service in America. It was the first large free municipal library in the United States, the first public library to lend books, the first to have a branch library, and the first to have a children’s room. Each year, the Boston Public Library hosts thousands of programs and serves millions of people. All of its programs and exhibitions are free and open to the public. At the Boston Public Library, books are just the beginning. To learn more, visit bpl.org.

About IRON MOUNTAIN

Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is a leading provider of storage and information management services. The company’s real estate network of more than 69 million square feet across more than 1,100 facilities in 37 countries allows it to serve customers around the world. And its solutions for records management, data management, document management, and secure shredding help organizations to lower storage costs, comply with regulations, recover from disaster, and better use their information. Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain stores and protects billions of information assets, including business documents, backup tapes, electronic files and medical data. Visit www.ironmountain.com for more information.

About the NORMAN B. LEVENTHAL MAP CENTER
The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center is ranked among the top 10 map centers in the United States for the size of its collection, the significance of its historic (pre-1900) material, and its advanced digitization program. It is unique among the major collections because it also combines these features with exceptional educational and teacher training programs to advance geographic literacy among students in grades K-12 and enhance the teaching of subjects from history to mathematics to language arts. The collection is also the second largest in the country located in a public library, ensuring unlimited access to these invaluable resources for scholars, educators, and the general public. The Leventhal Map Center, created in 2004, is a nonprofit organization established as a public-private partnership between the Boston Public Library and philanthropist Norman Leventhal. Its mission is to use the Boston Public Library’s permanent collection of 200,000 maps and 5,000 atlases and a select group of rare maps collected by Mr. Leventhal for the enjoyment and education of all through exhibitions, educational programs, and a website that includes thousands of digitized maps at maps.bpl.org. The map collection is global in scope, dating from the 15th century to the present, with a particular strength in maps and atlases of Boston, Massachusetts, and New England.

Boston Public Library image: William Shakespeare’s First Folio, 1623. Boston Public Library, Rare Books Department.

Map Center image: Heinrich Bünting (1545-1606). Die Gantze Welt in ein Kleberblat. Magdeburg, 1581. Courtesy Mapping Boston Foundation.