3.2 Theodore Vail

Shakespeare's First Folio

Use this resource to explore the University of Leeds Brotherton Collection digital First Folio, to find out more about the significance of the book, and the history of this particular copy.

1.1 The significance of the First Folio: the plays

The significance of the plays in Shakespeare's first folio. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

1.2 The significance of the First Folio: Shakespeare as literary figure

The significance of Shakespeare as a literary figure. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

1.3 The First Folio in context: The 'Principall Actors in all these Playes'

The context of the first folio of Shakespeare's plays - the principal actors. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

1.4 The First Folio in context: the portrait

The context of the first folio of Shakespeare's plays - Shakespeare's portrait. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

1.5 The First Folio in Context: 'To the great Variety of readers'

The context of the first folio of Shakespeare's plays - the readers. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

2.1. The condition of the Brotherton First Folio

The condition of the Library's copy of Shakespeare's first folio. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

2.2 The Brotherton First Folio: the binding

The condition of the binding of the Library's copy of Shakespeare's first folio. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

2.3 The Brotherton First Folio: the box

The condition of the containing box of the Library's copy of Shakespeare's first folio. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

Shakespeare First Folio inside front cover showing bookplate

3. Provenance of the Brotherton First Folio

3.1 Lord Brotherton

Read about Lord Brotherton of Wakefield, who purchased Shakespeare's First Folio and donated it to the University of Leeds. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

Theodore Newton Vail, 1845-1920, bust portrait, facing left]

3.2 Theodore Vail

Read about Theodore Vail, a previous owner of Shakespeare's First Folio now owned by the University of Leeds. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

4. Digitising the First Folio

Read about the digitisation of Shakespeare's first folio undertaken by the University of Leeds Library. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

5. Shakespeare's First Folio

View a high-resolution digitised version of Shakespeare's First Folio. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

Theodore Vail, the Folio's previous owner, died in 1920. During his career, he effectively invented the telephone business in the United States.

As Head of the American Bell Telephone Company (later AT&T), he oversaw a communications revolution that established the telephone as a necessity of everyday life, instituting phone services between New York and San Francisco by 1915, and America and Europe a year later.

Vail's biographer Albert Paine described his "collector's love of books" and "tendency to buy generously when he was in the mood - by wholesale, so to speak - it being always easier to buy two pictures than one, and collections of bric-a-brac rather than a single piece".

Vail himself said "I don't understand my fad for collecting...if I ever get rich enough I am going to have a collection of a curious sort. I am going to have the finest example of each kind of art in the world."

The First Folio was presumably acquired as part of this plan.

It has not been possible to trace the provenance of the Folio past Vail's ownership. The volume is not listed in Sidney Lee's 1902 census of extant copies, and so was presumably in private hands at this point.

Lord Brotherton's librarian, J. A. Symington, speculated that the Folio was "most probably taken to America in the early days".