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Shakespeare at Vassar

Exhibition Display List

At the Thompson Memorial Library

Teaching Shakespeare

Case 1:

Backus, Truman J.Shaw’s New History of English Literature.
Prepared on the basis of “Shaw’s manual.”
New York: Sheldon
& Co., 1874.

Wylie, Laura Johnson. Vassar College, 1877. Student notebook.

Case 3:

Folger, Emily C. J. “The True Text of Shakespeare.” M.A. thesis,
Vassar College, 1896.

Photograph of Emily C. J. Folger in her senior year at Vassar
College, 1879.

Case 5:

Rickert, Edith. “Shakespeare’s Delineation of the Celtic Character.” Winner of the Helen Kate Furness Prize, Vassar College, 1891.

Reed, Elizabeth B. Thompson. Vassar College, 1903. Student notebook.

Shakespeare, William.The Winter’s Tale. Edited by Laura J. Wylie. New York: Macmillan, 1912.

Case 7:

MacCracken, Henry Noble. Syllabus for English 266c,
Vassar College, 1945.

Photograph of Henry Noble MacCracken, circa 1945.

Smith, Winifred. Examination Questions and Syllabus for Comparative Literature 355. Vassar College, 1942 and 1943-44.

Photograph of Winifred Smith, 1951.

Case 9:

Hawkins, Harriett.Poetic freedom and Poetic Truth: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Milton. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.

Witmore, Michael. “Men Do Their Broken Weapons Rather Use:
The Science of Vision in Shakespeare’sOthello.” Senior Essay,
Vassar College, 1988.

Photograph of professors who currently teach Shakespeare at Vassar College: Leslie C. Dunn, Donald W. Foster, Zoltan Markus, Karen Lee Robertson, Denise A. Walen.

Shakespeare in Special Collections

Case 2:

Shakespeare, William.Mr. William Shakespear’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies: published according to the true original copies: unto which is added, seven plays never before printed in folio. London: printed for H. Herringman, E. Brewster, and R. Bentley, at the Anchor in the New Exchange, the Crane in St. Pauls Church-Yard, and in Russel-Street Covent-Garden, 1685.

Case 4:

Shakespeare, William.The Plays of William Shakespeare in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson. London: Printed for J. and R. Tonson, etc., 1765.

Shakespeare, William.The Shakespeare Gallery; containing a select series of scenes and characters, accompanied by criticisms and remarks… on fifty plates. London: C. Taylor, 1792.

Case 6:

Furness, Horace Howard, Mrs.A Concordance to Shakespeares Poems: an index to every word therein contained, by Mrs. Horace Howard Furness. Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, 1874.

Folger, Emily C. Jordan.Some Women Interpreters of Shakespeare. 1915.

Case 8:

Shakespeare, William; Moore, T. Sturge; Ricketts, Charles S.The Vale Shakespeare. London: Hacon & Ricketts, 1900-1904.

Shakespeare, William.The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke. Hammersmith: Printed by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson at the Doves Press, 1909.

Case 10:

Shakespeare, William.The Tempest. Ill. Arthur Rackham. New York: Doubleday, Page; London: W. Heinemann, 1926.

Shakespeare, William.The Comedies, Histories & Tragedies of William Shakespeare. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1939-1940.

Case in Special Collections:

Boydell, John.The American Edition of Boydell’s Illustrations of the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare, by the Most Eminent Artists of Great Britain…(New York, 1852).

Performing Shakespeare

Case 11:

Photograph of performance ofTwelfth Night, Vassar College, 1894.

Cast listTwelfth Night.Vassarion, 1894.

Photograph of performance ofRomeo and Juliet, Vassar College, 1906.

Cast list forRomeo and Juliet.Vassarion, 1907.

Case 13:

Photograph of Experimental Theatre performance ofAntony and Cleopatra, Vassar College. Photographer: Margaret DeM. Brown, 1934.

Program and manager/director’s script from Experimental Theatre performance ofAntony and Cleopatra, 1934.

MacCracken, Henry Noble. Autograph letter signed to “Director” refusing the role of Enobarbus, 23 October [1933].

Case 15:

(all items courtesy of the VC Drama Department)

Photographs of Experimental Theatre performance of
The Winter’s Tale, Vassar College, 1958.

Stage manager’s script from Experimental Theatre
performance ofThe Winter’s Tale, Vassar College, 1958.

Sheet music from Experimental Theatre performance of
The Winter’s Tale, Vassar College, 1958.

Case 17:

(all items courtesy of the VC Drama Department)

Photograph and program from Experimental Theatre performance of
All’s Well That Ends Well, Vassar College, 1974.

Photographs and program from Experimental Theatre performance of
Twelfth Night, Vassar College, 1990.

Photographs and advertising card from Experimental Theatre
performance ofThe Taming of the Shrew, Vassar College, 2001.

Photographs and advertising card from Experimental Theatre
performance ofHenry IV, Part 1, Vassar College, 2001.

Program from Experimental Theatre performance of
TheHamlet Symphony on the occasion of the dedication
of the Center for Drama and Film, Vassar College, 2003.

Case 19:

(all items courtesy of the VC Drama Department)

Photographs and program from performance ofHere Lies the Water / Here Stands the Man, Vassar College, 2014.

Rehearsal report #2 forHere Lies the Water / Here Stands the Man, 2014 November 7.

The Shakespeare Garden

Case 12:

Crane, Walter Crane.Flowers from Shakespeare’s Garden:
A Posy from the Plays
. London: Cassell and Co., 1906.

Singleton, Esther.The Shakespeare Garden. New York: Century, 1922.

Case 14:

Typed letter signed from Emmaline Moore to George E. Dimock, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, 1916 May 8.

“For the Shakespeare Garden,”Vassar Quarterly, 1916 November.

Case 16:

Photograph of students working in the garden area. Photographer: Margaret DeM. Brown, circa 1916.

Photograph of students preparing the ground for the garden, circa 1916.

Photograph of women working in the Shakespeare Garden, Vassar College, circa 1950.

Photograph of women with plant boxes helping with the Shakespeare Garden restoration, Vassar College. Photographer: Dixie Sheridan, 1978

Photograph of Shakespeare Garden pre-restoration, Vassar College. Photographer: Dixie Sheridan, 1978

Case 18:

Photograph of students dancing in the Shakespeare Garden,
Vassar College, circa 1925.

Photograph of class in Shakespeare Garden, Vassar College. Photographer: Henry E. Brown, circa 1940.

Photograph of students reading in Shakespeare Garden, Vassar College, circa 1945.

Case 20:

Posters from the Merely Players production ofArden of Faversham
and the 2016 Shakespeare Festival.

Photographs of the Shakespeare Garden, Vassar College.
Photographer: Tamar Thibodeau, Spring 2015

At the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

“For through the painter you must see his skill”:
Shakespeare in Art from the Permanent Collection

Washington Allston (American, 1779–1843)
Titania’s Fairie Court, before 1837
Pen and umber ink with wash and traces of graphite
on tinted ground on canvas
48 5/8 x 72 3/4 in. (123.51 x 184.79 cm)
Gift of the Washington Allston Trust, 1955.4.2

J. E. Buckley (English, active 1843–1861)
Richard III and the Murderers and the “Princes”
Watercolor
6 5/8 x 4 3/4 in. (16.83 x 12.07 cm)
Gift of Matthew Vassar, 1864.2.2945

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863)
The Murder of Polonius from Hamlet, Treize Sujets Dessinés
(Hamlet, Thirteen Subjects), 1834–1843
Lithograph
11 3/16 x 8 13/16 in. (28.42 x 22.38 cm)
Purchase, 1967.10

Charles Loring Elliott (American, 1812–1868)
Falstaff, 1856
Oil on canvas
12 7/16 x 10 1/4 in. (31.59 x 26.04 cm)
Gift of Matthew Vassar, 1864.1.28

Sanford Robinson Gifford (American, 1823–1880)
The Shrine of Shakespeare, 1859
Oil on canvas
9 x 15 1/2 in. (22.86 x 39.37 cm)
Gift of Matthew Vassar, 1864.1.35

William Hamilton (English, 1751–1801)
Joan of Arc and the Furies
Oil on canvas
31 1/8 x 21 7/8 in. (79.06 x 55.56 cm)
Purchase, Betsy Mudge Wilson,
class of 1956, Memorial Fund, 1966.12

Francis Legat (English, 1755–1809) after
James Barry (Irish, 1741-1806)
King Lear and Cordelia, “King Lear;” Act V,
Scene iii from Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, 1792
Etching and engraving
19 9/16 x 25 in. (49.69 x 63.5 cm)
Purchase, Matthew Vassar Fund, 1968.25.1

Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883)
L’acteur tragique (The Tragic Actor:
Philibert Rouvière in the role of Hamlet), 1866
Etching
11 3/4 x 6 5/16 in. (29.85 x 16.03 cm)
Purchase, 1968.3

James Northcote (English, 1746-1831)
Hamlet and the Ghost of his Father, ca. 1799
Pen and brown ink
5 3/8 x 4 3/4 in. (13.65 x 12.07 cm)
Gift of Matthew Vassar, 1864.1.261

Benjamin Smith (English, active 1786–1833) after
George Romney (English, 1734–1802)
The Enchanted Island, Before the Cell of Prospero, “The Tempest,”
Act I, Scene i, from Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, 1797
Stipple engraving and etching
19 1/2 x 24 13/16 in. (49.53 x 63.02 cm)
Purchase, Matthew Vassar Fund, 1968.25.4

John Smith (British, 1751–1812) after
Henry Fuseli (Swiss, 1741–1825)
The Weird Sisters, 1785
Mezzotint
Image: 17 1/4 x 21 3/4 in. (43.82 x 55.25 cm)
Purchase, 1967.17

Robert Thew (English, 1758-1802) after
William Hamilton (English, 1751-1801)
Paulina’s House, “Winter’s Tale,” Act V, Scene iii from
Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, 1793
Engraving
19 13/16 x 25 1/16 in. (50.32 x 63.66 cm)
Purchase, Matthew Vassar Fund, 1968.25.2

John Trumbull (American, 1756–1843)
The Death of Hotspur, 1786
Brown ink and pencil
9 x 7 1/4 in. (22.86 x 18.42 cm)
Gift of Matthew Vassar, 1864.1.216