The National Archives and Records Administration, established in 1934,
is the branch of the U.S. Government that is responsible for retaining and
organizing the government’s official records. The website here states that 1% –
3% of the government’s documents in any year end up in permanent storage at the
archives. So they now have some ten
billion pages, but visitors to Washington are interested in three. And once in
their lifetime, every American should try to see them. Of course these are THE
three documents that define who we are, the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights known collectively as the Charters of
Freedom.
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| National Archives, Washington D.C. |
The lighting in the Rotunda where he Charters are housed is dim and the
documents are housed in large casements with frames made of commercially pure
titanium and filled with inert argon gas to protect them. The Declaration of
Independence is so faded it’s almost unreadable. In display cases on both sides
of the Charter documents are cases with other ancillary documents, mostly
facsimiles that give some background to the history and creators of the Charter
documents. Overhead are two large murals painted by Barry Faulkner in 1936 one
depicting the signers of the Declaration the other, the Constitution.
Along with the Charters there’s a good deal more to see at the
archives. The floor below contains the Public Vaults which is an exhibit area
for visitors to learn about the work the archives does, the kinds of documents
and other media that the archives stores and examples of some of the materials.
Because the archives has material going back to the founding of the country,
there are lots of history lessons in the one thousand documents, audio and
video recordings and interactive touch screens that visitors can see and hear. Many of
the original documents are changed out annually to protect them, and they
include treaty documents made with American Indian tribes, items from the Civil
War and WWII, an early voice recording of Teddy Roosevelt and much more. In one
section about the 54th Massachusetts Regiment there’s an original
muster roles and a handwritten eyewitness account of the Battle of Fort Wagner
along with some film clips from the movie Glory. In the section about U.S. Presidents there’s
a tape recorder that Nixon had put in the White House that would help in his
having to resign the Presidency. And nearby is a telephone set where visitors
can hear tape recordings of a number of presidents. One section has photos of
the presidents as children. One touchscreen allows viewers to look at documents
that have been declassified over the years.
There’s also a space for temporary exhibits, the Lawrence F. O’Brien
Gallery which has hosted some significant historical exhibits including ones on
Benjamin Franklin and the Cuban Missile Crises. There’s also good sized gift
shop with lots of U.S. history related items. And the Archives has its own
YouTube channel here. So you might come
to see THE documents, but if you’ve got some time you might want to stay to see
some of the others.
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