Overclockaholics Forums - Preserving of the Declaration of Independance

Give me your John Hancock

Quote:

Darleen Hartley

Protecting and preserving the 233 year old document that established the United States of America has been complex. Shuffled around the infant country, copied, hidden, displayed, analyzed, and digitized the Declaration of Independence has endured.

It finally rests in the National Archives in a ballistically tested glass and plastic laminate case with ultraviolet-light filters. At night it is stored in an underground vault. A $3 million camera and computerized system monitors the condition of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. The Jet Propulsion Lab designed the Charters Monitoring System to detect any changes in readability due to ink flaking, off-setting of ink to glass, changes in document dimensions, and ink fading. The system is capable of recording in very fine detail 1-inch square areas. Getting to this point has been an arduous journey.

The political philosophy of one of the most precious documents of the United States was not new. John Locke and Continental philosophers had already posed the idea of individual liberty. Thomas Jefferson stated that those ideals were self-evident truths. The 1776 Declaration listed grievances against the King of England, which he had ignored, and justified the colonies rendering their relationship with the mother country asunder.

Church bells rang in Philadelphia when the Declaration was officially adopted. John Dunlap, official printer to Congress, immediately whipped out copies, now known as the Dunlap broadside. Broadsides were large sheets of paper, a popular 18th century means for rapidly distributing important information. They were distributed to members of Congress and commanders in the colonial military. Only 24 known copies remain.

More about the preservation here...
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...ependence.aspx