The National Archives

The rotunda of the National Archives reopened to the public in the fall of 2003 after two years of renovations designed to make the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence more accessible to the public.

The new parchment cases are positioned at easier to read angles. The document cases are about 28 inches from the floor, and they slant upward at 25-degree angles. The glass that protects the documents is clearer, thinner and less reflective, and the documents themselves were cleaned and partially restored.

The Constitution, which previously displayed only the first and last pages, will be totally displayed. Additionally, the documents on display include a 1775 “agreement of secrecy” signed by the delegates to the Second Continental Congress; the Articles of Confederation; a 1783 Quaker petition to Congress opposing slavery; and Abraham Lincoln’s 1862 State of the Union address.

The two huge murals by Barry Faulkner installed in the rotunda in 1936 – “The Declaration of Independence” and “The Constitution” – were renovated last year. Conservators cleaned the 340-pound canvases, removed layers of plaster, lead and grime, and smoothed out bubbles and wrinkles.

The now open “Public Vaults” transports visitors into the musty stacks and cavernous halls of the National Archives through original documents, touch-screen displays and plasma screens.  The new exhibit area showcases a sampling of recordings, videos, photographs and documents selected from the more than 6 billion pieces of paper and 11 million pictures housed in the Archives.

For more information and details, visit the National Archives site.