Transfer of Charters of Freedom to the National Archives, 12/13/1952, NARA ID 5928179.
Declaration and Constitution join Bill of Rights #OTD, 1952
Procession transferring documents to the National Archives, 12/13/1952.
#OTD in 1952, after years of negotiation between the Archivist of the United States and the Librarian of Congress, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were transferred to the National Archives. Together with the Bill of Rights (moved from the State Dept. to the Archives in 1938), the so-called Big Three are also known as the “Charters of Freedom.”
DID YOU KNOW that when the Archives was completed in 1937, the Rotunda did not hold the documents now nearly synonymous with the National Archives: the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence? Architect John Russell Pope had designed the Rotunda as a shrine for these documents, but our friendly neighbor down the street (the Library of Congress) didn’t want to part with these national treasures!
The transfer began with the commanding General of the Air Force Headquarters Command formally receiving the Declaration and Constitution at the Library of Congress at 11 a.m. After being paraded down Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues by members from all branches of the military, at 11:35 am, the General and 12 policemen carried the documents up the Constitution Ave. stairs into the Rotunda and formally delivered them into the custody of the Archivist of the United States.
On Monday morning, December 15, 1952—Bill of Rights Day—Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson presided, and President Truman attended, the formal enshrining ceremony. That year the National Bureau of Standards placed the documents into hermetically sealed encasements filled with inert helium gas, where they stayed for nearly 50 years.
President Truman and other dignitaries at the dedication 12/15/1952 Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, NARA ID 200407.
Placing of the Declaration in its exhibit case in the Rotunda, NARA ID 7657279.
More online:
Travels of the Charters of Freedom, Prologue Magazine
WATCH THE PROCESSION AND CEREMONY!
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