Save America's Treasures - Project Profile

July 1999

Charters of Freedom
National Archives Rotunda
Washington, DC

Introduction | Charters | Murals

he Charters of Freedom, consisting of six parchment pages — the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution (four pages), and the Bill of Rights — are the founding documents of our democracy. Four of these pages: the Declaration of Independence, the first and last pages of the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are on permanent display in the National Archives Rotunda, in Washington, D.C.

A Bird’s Eye View of the Charter’s of Freedom Display
in the National Archives Rotunda

Placed in the center of the grand 75-foot high domed semi-circular Rotunda, the Charters are currently displayed in a raised marble case, flanked by two 35-foot murals depicting the presentation of the Declaration of Independence to John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, on the left; and James Madison presenting George Washington with the final draft of the U.S. Constitution, on the right. The Declaration is mounted vertically on the wall above the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Each night the Charters are lowered twenty feet into a steel and reinforced concrete vault beneath the display area. Before opening the Rotunda each morning, the documents are mechanically raised into the marble display cases. The two pages not on display (the two middle pages of the Constitution) are stored in the vault and are not on view to the public. George Washington's transmittal page for the Constitution, which is written on parchment, is also stored in the vault.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were transferred to the National Archives Building from the Library of Congress in 1952. They had been in the custody of the Library of Congress since 1922. Prior to that, they were at the Department of State. The Bill of Rights was transferred directly to the National Archives from the Department of State in 1938. On December 13, 1952, at the formal enshrining ceremony, President Harry S. Truman said:

"The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are now assembled in one place for display and safekeeping…. We are engaged here today in a symbolic act. We are enshrining these documents for future ages…. This magnificent hall has been constructed to exhibit them, and the vault beneath, that we have built to protect them, is as safe from destruction as anything that the wit of modern man can devise. All this is an honorable effort, based upon reverence for the great past, and our generation can take just pride in it."

History and Significance

The Declaration of Independence

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence serves as one of America's most treasured symbols because it identifies the moment at which the nation was born and, in stirring language, describes the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people. The political philosophy of the Declaration was not new; John Locke and the Continental philosophers had already expressed its ideals of individual liberty. What Jefferson did was summarize this philosophy in "self-evident truths" and recount, for Americans and the international community, the grievances that had led to the call for separation of the thirteen colonies from England.

Constitution of the United States

The Federal Convention convened in the State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787, to revise the Articles of Confederation. Because the delegations from only two states were at first present, the members adjourned from day to day until a quorum of seven states was obtained on May 25. Through discussion and debate it became clear by mid-June that, rather than amend the existing Articles, the Convention would draft an entirely new frame of government. All through the summer, in closed sessions, the delegates debated, and redrafted the articles of the new Constitution. Among the chief points at issue were how much power to allow the central government, how many representatives in Congress to allow each state, and how these representatives should be elected — directly by the people or by the state legislators. The work of many minds, the Constitution stands as a model of cooperative statesmanship and the art of compromise.

Bill of Rights

Recently freed from the despotic English monarchy, the American people wanted strong guarantees that the new government would not trample upon their newly won freedoms of speech, press and religion, nor upon their right to be free from warrantless searches and seizures. The Constitution's framers heeded Thomas Jefferson who argued: "A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference." The American Bill of Rights, inspired by Jefferson and drafted by James Madison, was adopted, and in 1791 the Constitution's first ten amendments became the law of the land.

Preservation Efforts

In 1951 the Charters of Freedom were encased in glass and bronze containers filled with helium.

The first modern preservation efforts began in 1951 when the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) encased each of the seven parchment sheets (the six pages of the Charters and the transmittal page) in a sealed glass and metal container filled with helium. After more than 40 years of being conserved and displayed at the National Archives, the original encasements are starting to show their age. In 1995, experts detected signs of deterioration in the glass and recommended that the Charters be re-encased to ensure their continued safety and preservation. Eventually, with continued deterioration, the glass will become opaque and the documents will become obscured. Contact between the parchment and the glass may cause abrasions to the parchment as well.

The Charters of Freedom, on display at the National Archives since 1952, will be preserved for future generations with the help of a $1 million grant from AT&T.

With help from a $1 million grant from AT&T, the National Archives is working with world-class conservators and scientists to build new state-of-the-art encasements to protect our country’s founding Charters of Freedom well into the next millennium. Prototypes of these encasements were engineered with the support of The Pew Charitable Trusts. The new encasements will be constructed from commercially pure titanium, filled with inert argon gas. When the documents are taken out of their current enclosures, it will be the first time in 50 years that the documents will be examined without glass. At that time, conservators will decide if any preservation work will be done on the documents.

The re-encasement will be integrated into a redesign of the entire Rotunda of the National Archives Building to improve public access for viewing the Charters of Freedom. The new display will be handicapped accessible and will allow for all four pages of the Constitution, as well as the transmittal page, to be displayed.