America's Greatest Artifacts Unite in a Traveling Exhibition Marking the Nation's 250th Birthday

PHILADELPHIA/NEW YORK — For the first time since they were placed in their permanent home at the National Archives in 1952, the original parchment documents that established the American republic — the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights — have left Washington, D.C. The three founding documents are currently on display at Philadelphia's Independence Hall as the centerpiece of 'America 250: The Founding Documents Tour.' They arrive in New York on September 15.

The decision to travel the Charters of Freedom required an act of Congress, a multi-year security and conservation planning process, and the development of specially designed transport cases that maintain precise temperature, humidity, and vibration parameters throughout transit. The National Archives commissioned the cases from a team of conservation engineers at the Smithsonian Institution. Each document travels in an argon-filled enclosure with triple redundant atmospheric sensors and real-time data transmission to monitoring stations in Washington.

In Philadelphia, where the exhibition opened July 4 to lines stretching 14 blocks from Independence Hall, more than 340,000 people have viewed the documents in the first three weeks — a pace that would make the Philadelphia stop the most attended single exhibition in Pennsylvania history. School groups from 47 states have registered for guided visits, and the National Archives has partnered with the Library of Congress to provide free digital facsimiles of all three documents to every K-12 classroom in the country.

New York's hosting of the documents — September 15 through October 31 at the New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue — represents a significant organizational undertaking for the city. The library's Rose Main Reading Room will be temporarily reconfigured to house the security infrastructure required for the display, including ballistic glass viewing enclosures and a 4K digital interpretation wall that contextualizes the founding texts against the full sweep of American history.

Tickets for the New York run, allocated through a free timed-entry lottery, were fully subscribed within 11 hours of opening. The National Archives has reserved 20 percent of daily capacity for walk-up visitors and an additional 15 percent for school and community groups. 'These documents belong to every American,' said Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan. 'Our job is to make sure every American who wants to see them this year has a genuine path to do so.'