and mrs. folger knew it wanted to get out of this version of shakespeare's plays in this book, they have to compare them. >> michael witmore i'm here at the folger go are the items are displayed available to the public? >> yes, they are. anyone can come and see a first folio at the folger. we are free and we are open to the public on holidays but we were created in order to share this remarkable collection. >> two people come? how many people, a year? >> we have about 80,000 people, year. when you come here you can see a first folio in the corner of our great hall. you can also see one of our exhibition. you can see a shakespeare play performed in the theater. and if you're a qualified reader, you have a recently in our collection can you can come into the reading rooms and request items from hundreds of thousands of items that we have in our rare collection. >> is the reading room restricted to scholars speak with it is restricted to people who have a good reason to use a. so often that scholars but

and mrs. folger knew that if we wanted to get at the best version of shakespeare's plays in this book, we'd have to compare them. >> host: michael witmore, here at the folger are the items that you have displayed, are they open to the public? >> guest: yes, they are. >> host: such as the first folio? >> guest: anyone can come and see a first folio at the folger. we are free, and we are open to the public on holidays, but we were created in order to share this remarkable collection. and so that's what we do. >> host: and so do people come? how many people do you have come a year here? >> guest: so we have about 80,000 people come a year, and when you come here, you can see a first folio in the corner of our great hall. you can also see one of our exhibitions, you can see a shakespeare play performed in the first elizabeth january theater in north america, and if you are a qualified reader, you can come into our reading room and request items from the hundreds of thousands of items that we have in our

mr. folger was the elmhurst to one so they took it over. c-span: back to politics here is senator ted kennedy and senator simpson. >> eventually under the senate rules will have an opportunity to have these offerings and amendments on the minimum-wage. >> mr. president i take we could go on and we made that as we get back to the substance of minimum-wage as the senator does that and i misspoke earlier that senator kennedy as "king lear." [laughter] because certainly he launched and here i am. >> i am not sure what that means that when senator simpson he was "the reader" at the folger and i was told he spent time in the library said he is a huge fan and he read aloud he was in the library. c-span: is a make any sense you call him king leer? >> i need to know more about the context but i think he said plunging into the tempest in a gentle think he is quoting the tempest that talking about suffering the breakdown at the hands of the elements and hurling the insults to the gods and senator simpson calls itself the playful spirit spirit, midsumm

folgers? >> guest: mr. soldier -- folger was present at standard oil and made his fortune as an oilman to what he was running standard oil of quietly acquired the greatest shakespeare collection in the world bar none including 82 copies of the 16,231st folio. those who we are going to hear that term throughout this interview. what is that? >> guest: the first folio is the collection of 36 shakespeare plays published by two of shakespeare's friends who knew him. without that book which was published in 1623 we probably wouldn't have 18 of shakespeare's plays including mcbath and a 12 night in the winter's tale picks probably the most studied single edition of the book in the world and is also a great connection to shakespeare this writer that is still used by scholars today. posts of that was put together seven years after his death. >> guest: exactly right. >> host: how many of those exist and how many were printed and how makes this? >> guest: there were probably 700 copies of the first folio printed and th

and mrs. folger knew if they wanted to get the best version of shakespeare's play in this book they have to adhere them. >> michael wetmore, are the items you have displayed available to the public? >> yes, they are. anyone can come and see them and we are open to the public on holidays, but we've are created in order to share this remarkable collection. so that's what we do. >> how many people do have come here? >> we have about 80,000 people, a year. when you come here, you can see the corner of our great hall. you can also see one of our exhibitions. you can see the shape class and if you are a qualified reader, if you have her recent user collection, you can come into our reading room and request items in a rare collection. >> is a reading room restricted to scholars? >> the reading room is district to get people who have a good reason to use it. often scholars a method if you're not and you need to consult something for your writing, we would open our material studio. >> is folger collection onl

mr. and misses folger. that makes them the only people who are buried on capitol hill.and that is important because we are republic and we don't bury america's next to the seat of power. we like to keep people away from the center of power. >> what goes on in this? >> researchers are working with original source materials. they are digging in. they were on the 400 year. and one of the most amazing things when you look around and see someone who has their head down. died in the past. the intensity of the connection. >> the tourists came by. >> comfort to our on saturday afternoon. we realize that it has to last another for centuries. >> we have more see. >> thank you. >> siding out. >> and no readers will be going. the provider readers access. >> were going belowground. >> several floors below ground level. >> we keep a rare books and manuscripts. >> what is collected during their lifetime before they die? >> they started the collection. they have been collecting for around 80 years. a growing and dynamic collection and we acquired and give it to scholars or take picture

mr. and misses folger which is interesting. that makes them the only people who are buried on capitol hill. it is ironic. this was there gift. they chose to have their ashes placed here. >> what goes on in this room and you can access it? >> filled with researchers are working with original resource material type universities writing books, but they are digging in. coming up a 400 year's version. you look around. and that person is surfacing from the 4th century dive into the past. the intensity of the connection in the imagination you've got to have. so inspiring, you can't really show it but it's happening. >> is that possible? >> you could comfort tour on saturday afternoon. if you really want to handle the collection we would need to get the permission. >> two letters of reference. has to last another for centuries. >> there is a lot. you have some hidden stuff you will show us. >> i have. >> thank you. >> am signing up. this is the keeper of the keys. the ball doesvault is a secure space that we need to control very carefu

mr. folger and his wife spent many years and dollars collect the shakespeare memorabilia and documents willsts largest collection of shakespeare-related objects. we will be live beginning at noon from the full chair library. 400 years of shakespeare on book tv. announcer: next, ohio governor john kasich campaigns for president in annapolis maryland. governor kasich spoke about the national debt, the economy, and job training. maryland primary voters go to the polls next tuesday. [applause] >> thank you. again, there is a lot of new people. my name is mike and i'm the mayor of annapolis, maryland. i want to thank you all so much for coming out and supporting john kasich to be our next president. [applause] [laughter] >> it is only to cheat if i need it. well governor, we are proud of the work you've done as a governor, as a congressman, and of the work you're going to do as president of the united states on day one. [applause] >> i was coming here and somebody asked me, why are you supporting john kasich for president? i told them, because the country needs a strong leader to take us forward

mr. witmore, i also very much enjoyed the tour of the folger library that you did with peter slen a while a teacher of science and math, but as an undergrad i was one of those rare students who took the, studied humanities along with the sciences. i had three terms of shakespeare simultaneously with three of physics. which is going to get to my question in a second. in 1984 i got to visit stratford upon avon, picked up a couple of books there that i'll commend quickly, every man's companion to shakespeare, a british publication by dent, ghei roett and barbara lloyd evans and a quick interpretation of shakespeare by d.c. browning. great to add to the folger volumes that you publish. [laughter] on someone's shelf. my question, with the emphasis on modern technologies and health sciences and other s.t.e.m.-focused curricula in our education systems at all levels, do you think enough students will continue to study shakespeare to maintain some familiarly and that it may be still offered as dedicated courses at the college level as opposed to just kind of inserting shakespeare in a survey cour

mr. obama: think you very much, everybody. [applause] >> the tv has authors every weekend. there are programs to watch this weekend. at noon eastern, but tb is live at the folgers shaker library here in washington d.c. to mark what00 anniversary of shakespeare's that. the program includes speakers and your phone calls. bold:00, sue clean leiboldes her -- sue k discusses her son on the columbine massacre. he is interviewed by mary, national alliance on mental illness ceo. >> if we look at a murder-suicide such as the columbine tragedy, murder-suicide is a small subset of suicide. perhaps, 1% to 2% will result from the killing of someone else. my recommendation is that we focus very much on trying to understand suicide and trying to prevent suicide so that these things don't you run into a terrible >> tragedy. on sunday afternoon at 1:30 eastern, but tb will air back-to-back programs that recently announced winners of this year's elixir prize -- the .heer's pulitzer prize general nonfiction winner joby takes a look at his book. go to our website for the complete schedule. american history tv on c-span three, this weekend, saturday evening at 6:00 eastern on the c