New Archives Digital Exhibit Highlights the State’s Fruitful Agriculture Industry

The Delaware Public Archives is excited to present a new digital exhibit that highlights the history and importance of Delaware’s agricultural industry: Grown & Gathered: Harvest in the First State. On display in the lobby of the Delaware Public Archives, the exhibit highlights Delaware’s important role in ensuring that people across the country have access to fresh produce and poultry.

Drawing on records preserved at the Delaware Public Archives, the exhibit features photographs and videos showing how generations of Delaware farmers have kept people fed for centuries. Grown & Gathered: Harvest in the First State explores Delaware’s harvest from the field to the wider community, highlighting the people, crops, tools, traditions, and transportation networks that shaped agricultural life across the state. Through historic photographs and motion picture film, the exhibit follows the work of preparing and harvesting crops, the processing and sharing of foods such as apples and sweet potatoes, and the ways produce moved from farms to markets by road and rail.