Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections

In 1888, Augustin Daly, a major figure in the American theatre, acquired this copy of the First Folio. Daly built and owned the Daly’s Theatres of New York and London and he discovered and trained some of the greatest actors of the time, including Tyrone Power, Maurice Barrymore, Sarah Jewett, and John Drew, Jr. Throughout his career, Daly directed various productions of Shakespeare’s plays which George Bernard Shaw often criticised. Shaw blamed Daly for cutting Shakespeare’s text and making, according to him, inappropriate directorial choices, like casting women to play male roles. Daly not only directed plays, but he was also a playwright himself. Daly’s copy was sold in 1900 at the Daly sale to James W. Ellsworth for $5,400. After being passed in the hands of Eldridge R. Johnson, president of the Victor Talking Machine Company, this copy was auctioned at Parke-Bernet in 1946 and sold for $22,000. William Pyle Philips next owned this copy, and it is possible that he is the person who purchased it at Parke-Bernet auction sale. In 1947, Pyle Philips donated a set of four Folios together with other works of Renaissance literature to Haverford College.