Thursday, September 21, 2006

Colgate University's Special Collections Profiled

The Oneida Daily Dispatch has an interesting look at Colgate University's Special Collections department, highlighting their Shakespeare First Folio which will go on display next year for the first time in recent memory. The copy was donated to the library by a member of the Colgate family in 1942, and was purchased at auction a few years earlier for $7,500 (remember, the Williams copy sold at Sotheby's in July for nearly $5.2 million).

After discussing the Colgate First Folio, the article recounts some of the most interesting First Folio anecdotes and stories, including the theft of the Bishop Cosin Library (Durham University) copy in 1998 and the loss of the Griswold copy with the sinking of the Arctic in 1854. It also discusses the locations of many of the c. 147 extant copies.