This is the collected volume of Shakespeare’s plays, bought for Birmingham’s public collection in 1881, is the only copy of this historic book purchased as part of a programme of education and inclusion for the working classes. It’s currently on display in Everything to Everybody an exhibition curated by the Royal Shakespeare Company and hosted at the Library of Birmingham

The exhibition challenges visitors to think about what culture means to them today and how they themselves can effect change in the city. One of the founders of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Memorial Library was the radical preacher and lecturer, George Dawson (1821-1876). Dawson formulated the ‘everything to everybody’ ethos, which fuelled a significant movement for public welfare and cultural participation in nineteenth-century Birmingham.

The exhibition brings to life the Shakespeare Memorial Library with objects from the collection and new responses to Birmingham’s distinctive Shakespeare heritage in film and spoken word.