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Shakespeare & Beyond

Shakespeare and World War I

Simplicissimus. Shakespeare and Cervantes edition. April 18, 1916. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Simplicissimus. Shakespeare and Cervantes edition. April 18, 1916. Folger Shakespeare Library.

In the spring of 1916, Shakespeare commemorations were popping up all across America in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Bard’s death, while remembrances in Europe played against the background of the first great World War. The New York Times reported on both. Photographs of soldiers in trenches were juxtaposed with special supplements honoring Shakespeare from February through April, 1916. Articles in the supplements made it clear that countries on both sides that were hammering each other in bloody conflicts were some of the greatest supporters of Shakespeare: England, Germany, France, Russia, and Norway.

Shakespeare Tercentary edition. New York Times. February 20, 1916. Folger Shakespeare Library.

Shakespeare Tercentary edition. New York Times. February 20, 1916. Folger Shakespeare Library.

The US would not enter the war for another year, in spite of German submarine attacks on Atlantic shipping that sank the Lusitania, a British liner with American passengers, in May 1915. In 1916, they also sank a ship coming from Britain that carried a collection of manuscripts from 18th-century Shakespearean actor David Garrick, which Henry Folger was considering for purchase. As Andrea Mays points out in her book, The Millionaire and the Bard, such a setback did not prevent Mr. Folger from purchasing six First Folios during 1916.

The Folger Shakespeare Library has continued what Henry and Emily Folger began: collecting many items relating to the 1916 commemorations. These include the New York Times supplements and materials documenting celebrations in various parts of the country, from a “dramatic tribute” by students at Indiana University in Bloomington and a list of “dramatic performances, exhibitions and festivals” in Philadelphia to catalogs of special Shakespeare exhibitions at the Boston Public and Princeton libraries. Both the Drama League in Washington, DC, and the New York Public Library published suggestions for schools and colleges celebrating Shakespeare. Armond Carroll wrote a masque performed at Piedmont Park, Atlanta, while Isabella Fiske Conant wrote another, performed in Wellesley, Massachusetts. At the University of North Dakota, 20 students wrote and produced an entertainment entitled Book of Shakespeare, the Playmaker, which they performed at the Bankside Theater on their campus. A St. Louis department store displayed “Things curious, instructive and beautiful pertaining to Shakespeare and the stage collected… by Adeline Palmier Wagoner,” president of the Shakespeare Tercentenary Society.