The Time-Travel Portal to 18th-Century Shakespeare Gallery

English professor Janine Barchas designed the site to look just as it did in 1796. Illustration by Liberal Arts Information Technology Services (LAITS) AUSTIN, Texas - The first museum dedicated to William Shakespeare reopened today, more than two centuries after shutting its doors. The Shakespeare Gallery has been digitally reconstructed by The University of Texas at Austin - just as it looked in 1796, when novelist Jane Austen took lodging around the corner while visiting London's sites. London sightseers paid a shilling entrance fee, but the digital reconstruction is free at www.whatjanesaw.org to modern visitors wanting to experience, just as Austen did, the Georgian equivalent of binge watching all of Shakespeare in one emotional go. "There are things to learn from seeing these pictures in situ that cannot be gleaned from even the smartest book about the gallery's history," said English professor Janine Barchas, who lead the "What Jane Saw" digital project and has garnered attention for her innovative use of digital tools to teach classic literature in its original historical context. Enterprising print-dealer, publisher and alderman John Boydell opened the first-ever Shakespeare museum in 1789. Before closing in 1804, his popular "Shakespeare Gallery" showcased many life-size contemporary paintings of well-known scenes from Shakespeare's plays, commissioned from the likes of Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Romney, Henry Fuseli, James Northcote, John Opie, Angelica Kauffman, James Barry, Benjamin West, and many others.