Delaware Public Archives is featuring a “behind the scenes” tour of the facility during the Dover Days Festival Saturday, May 5.
Saturday is the 85th anniversary of the annual festival in the state capital.
And again this year, staff at the Archives will conduct a unique tour of their facility as part of the event.
“And what we do is, we take people through the process of what a document would go through actually when it arrives here at the Archives. We’ll take them through where they will come in the building through the loading dock, we’ll go back to the processing room where the documents are actually processed and then we’ll go back to the vault where the documents are actually stored in an environmentally safe area," said Tom Summers, the manager of Outreach and Public Services at Archives.
He says they usually have about 50 people take the tour during Dover Days.
“While we’re going through this process, we’ll also be showing some of the really, really important documents from Delaware history. The main document that people love to see is the Charter Document from 1683. It’s actually the document which establishes the circular boundary for the northern part of the State,” Summers said.
Summers says other documents people enjoying getting a glimpse at includeDelaware’s ratified copy of the United States Constitution - which made Delaware the First State. He says it was signed on December 7, 1787, by 30 men, 10 from each of Delaware’s three counties.
It’s free and no reservations are required. But Summers says you should plan to arrive at Archives a few minutes before 1:30 p.m. - that’s when the tour starts.
