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We weren't exactly sure where you would find the original Constitution of the United States so we turned to the Yahoo! search box for an answer. After several unsuccessful attempts, we tried searching on "constitution displayed" and hit the jackpot. The first result was a page from the National Institute of Technology (NIST) web site, outlining their role in preserving the three "Charters of Freedom" -- the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. NIST was hired by the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) to build state-of-the-art display cases for the historic documents,
protecting them from the environment. Apparently, the new cases are part of a larger redesign project for the rotunda of the National Archives Building, where the documents will be displayed in 2003. We went back to our search results to see if we could learn more. One web site offered some interesting details about the original document: It was stored in various cities until 1952, when it was placed in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. During the daytime, pages one and four of the document are displayed in a bullet-proof case. The case contains helium and water vapor to preserve the
paper's quality. At night, the pages are lowered into a vault, behind five-ton doors that are designed to withstand a nuclear explosion. Apparently pages 2 and 3, as well as the transmittal page, remained in a vault and were not publicly displayed year round. When the National Archives Rotunda reopens sometime in 2003, all 5 pages will be displayed in their new cases. So it looks like you will have to wait until 2003 and then head to Washington, D.C. to catch a glimpse of the full document.
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