Birmingham

A memorial Shakespeare library was founded in 1864 by the local Shakespeare Club to commemorate the tercentenary, and opened on 23 April 1868, with this aim, expressed by the chairman of the Club, George Dawson: “I want to see founded in Birmingham a Shakespeare Library which should contain (as far as practicable) every edition and every translation of Shakespeare; all the commentators, good, bad, and indifferent; in short, every book connected with the life or works of our great poet. I would add portraits of Shakespeare, and all the pictures, &c., illustrative of his works.”