Charters of Freedom

The Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. where, in-between two Barry Faulkner murals, the original United States Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, and other American founding documents are exhibited.

The term Charters of Freedom is used to describe the three documents in early United States history which are considered instrumental to its founding and philosophy. The documents include the United States Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. While the term has not entered particularly common usage, the room at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. that houses the three documents is called the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom.

The National Archives preserves and displays the texts in massive, bronze-framed, bulletproof, moisture-controlled sealed display cases in a rotunda style room by day and in multi-ton bomb-proof vaults by night.[1]

The Charters of Freedom are flanked by Barry Faulkner’s two grand murals, one featuring Thomas Jefferson amidst the Continental Congress, and the other featuring on James Madison at the Constitutional Convention. Along the Charters of Freedom is a dual display of the "Formation of the Union", including documents related to the evolution of the U.S. government between 1774 and 1791, including the Articles of Association (1774), the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union (1778), the Treaty of Paris (1783), and Washington's First Inaugural Address (1789).[2]

  1. ^ Wood, Gordon S., Dusting off the Declaration, The New York Review of Books, Aug 14, 1997
  2. ^ National Park Service, Signers of the Constitution: Text and History Archived 2012-10-12 at the Wayback Machine Books on line series, viewed September 18, 2011.