Founding Documents at 250
The National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, is home to the original Declaration of Independence, displayed in the Rotunda along with the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
The Declaration's Anniversary
The Archives' anniversary reference linked July 4, 2026 to 250 years of American independence and identified the Semiquincentennial with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Written in 1776, the Declaration announced a complete break with Britain. Its statement of the ideals on which the United States was founded included these words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Drafts, Votes, and Revisions
On September 9, 2026, the National Archives announced plans to display all seven pages of George Washington's annotated copy of a draft of the Constitution in its Rotunda for the first time. The announcement of the annotated draft display identified the document as the Committee of Detail's draft of the United States Constitution, a secret printing bearing Washington's handwritten comments and revisions. He made those annotations while presiding over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, two years before his unanimous election as the first President of the United States. The temporary Constitution Day display was announced for September 14 through September 27, 2026.
The National Archives and Records Administration announced the "Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation" on January 20, 2026. Its tour announcement described plans to take original founding-era documents to eight American cities during that year. The list included a rare copy of the Constitution in draft form: a secret printing with a delegate's handwritten notes made during the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The 1787 Tally of Votes Approving the Constitution contained voting records reflecting debates, resolutions, and the Convention's eventual vote on the final text. A 1789 Senate markup of what would become the Bill of Rights reflected early revisions and deliberations over the first ten amendments.
The Constitution and Its Implementation Instructions
On September 9, 2025, the National Archives announced that it would display the entire United States Constitution together for the first time in its history. The complete Constitution display announcement described the four-page Constitution and original Bill of Rights surrounded by seventeen later constitutional amendments. The Archives presented this display as part of the celebration of 250 years of America's independence.
The announcement also included a rarely displayed document called the Constitution's "fifth page." This original document outlined instructions to the states on how to implement the Constitution. George Washington signed it in his capacity as President of the Constitutional Convention.
Preserving the Declaration
The Archives' March 30, 2026 announcement presented Free and Independent: A Celebration of the Declaration as a planned special exhibition in Washington, DC, with an announced opening date of April 25, 2026. The Declaration exhibition announcement described how the fragile parchment had been preserved over a period of 250 years, from adoption in Philadelphia in 1776 to permanent encasement behind layers of protective glass at the National Archives.
The exhibition was to include forty original artifacts from the Archives' collections and other lenders. Among them were a 1763 broadside from King George, Lafayette's Oath of Allegiance, and artifacts and ephemera associated with the Centennial and Bicentennial.