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Selecting the First Folios to Travel
First Folios were selected for travel based on the overall condition and stability of each book's binding and pages, as well as the condition of the opening shown at each venue: Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech.
Each Folio was fully digitized and its condition analyzed before it was sent out. Sustained exposure to light leads to fading of ink, darkening of paper, and increased fragility, so the Folger's conservators established a "light budget" based on the total number of hours that the book could be safely exposed. This ensures that our First Folios are available for research and display hundreds of years from now.
Sixteen of the 18 First Folios chosen to travel had only left the building once since the library opened in 1932. In 1942, they were secretly sent by train to Amherst College in Massachusetts to avoid potential damage during World War II. |