Four downtown Sacramento institutions are throwing open doors that stay locked the rest of the year this Saturday, letting the public wander into archive storage vaults and flip through records dating back to the mid-1800s. The free, 16th annual Sacramento Archives Crawl runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 17, with no ticket required and free shuttles connecting every stop.
The event unfolds at the California State Archives, California State Library, Center for Sacramento History and the Sacramento Room at the Sacramento Public Library, according to the Center for Sacramento History. Visitors can start and finish at any of the four main sites, and free bus transportation is provided between all of them, the center notes. As KCRA reports, the crawl gives the public access to greater Sacramento's documented history, archive storage areas and rarely seen special collections, including city, county and personal collection records dating to the mid-1800s.
Kim Hayden, an archivist at the Center for Sacramento History, told KCRA that the center's mission is straightforward: preserve records and make sure the public can actually get to them. “If you're a history lover, you're gonna love it. If you're not a history lover, you might be surprised,” Hayden said, according to the outlet.
What's Happening at Each Stop
At the Center for Sacramento History, storage vault tours begin every half hour starting at 10 a.m., with the last tour departing at 3:30 p.m., according to Sacramento City Express. Over at the Sacramento Room, history doctoral candidate Abbygale Principe of UC Riverside will discuss the first wave of Filipino immigration to the Central Valley and Sacramento area, with that presentation running from 1 to 2 p.m., the outlet reports.
The California State Library is offering guided, 30-minute “Tiny Tours” highlighting the building's art and architecture, per the same account. Meanwhile, the California State Archives will display original maps, photographs, correspondence and employee records in a one-day-only exhibit titled “Shaping a Shoreline: Stories from the Waterfront.”
More Than Just the Four Host Sites
Twenty additional archival institutions from the Sacramento region, the Delta and the Foothills will also exhibit at the four host sites, according to the Gold River Messenger. Among them is the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives, which is presenting an exhibit called “The Railroad Goes to Hollywood” exploring the railroad's role in film, as reported by the East Sacramento News.
California Revealed will also screen home movies from the Harold N. Ouye Collection, capturing everyday life in Sacramento from 1949 to 1958, the East Sacramento News reports. The lineup reflects what organizers describe as the event's broader purpose: opening archives and special collections libraries to the public and showcasing holdings rarely seen outside their storage rooms, per the Sacramento Archives Crawl website.
A Tradition Dating to 2010
The Center for Sacramento History has worked with other local archival institutions to organize and co-host the crawl every year since 2010, held each October as part of National Archives Month. Visitors who get their event passport stamped at three of the four host sites will walk away with a set of limited-edition commemorative coasters featuring archival images, the center says.
The crawl is an open-house event, with free admission, free shuttles and stops ranging from state archives vaults to a Filipino immigration history talk; organizers are betting that Sacramento's past has something to pull in nearly anyone for a Saturday afternoon downtown.
