Follow WTOP’s Matt Kaufax as he explores hidden gems, local landmarks and unique stories across the D.C. area every week. New episodes of WTOP’s “Matt About Town” segment are released each Tuesday and Thursday. 

If you were a historian handling a document that was four centuries old, would you wear gloves?

It might sound like a trick question, but it’s one WTOP is aiming to answer in Thursday’s episode of “Matt About Town.” 

Throughout the entire “Matt About Town” series exploring D.C.’s Folger Shakespeare Library in Capitol Hill, many of you, our listeners and viewers, have written in (or commented online), remarking on the fact that historians and curators aren’t using gloves (or special tools of any kind) to examine old, priceless copies of William Shakespeare’s works. 

Your reactions have been varied, from frustration, all the way to complete disbelief.

Well now, WTOP is setting the record straight, heading to the source at Folger to explain why the bare hands method, when done correctly, can actually be the best way to examine these rare books of plays that have survived since the early 1600s. 

These facts may surprise you!  

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