In honour of the birthday celebrations, the Birthplace visitor centre will open a new exhibition, Famous Beyond Words, in March, retelling the story of Shakespeare's development from Stratford local to world famous playwright, using artefacts from the museum's collection (such as the 1623 FirstFolio, the first published collection of Shakespeare's plays and the only reliable source for more than 20 of his works).
The reduced oxygen system will cover the archive storage areas on levels five and six, where rare items, such as Audubon's Birds of America and a ShakespeareFirstFolio, will be kept.