Transfer of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence to the National Archives
1952
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This film footage shows the transfer of the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence to the National Archives Building, their permanent home.
The documents are seen being loaded into an armored truck at the Library of Congress, taken to the National Archives Building in a procession down Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues, and carried up the building's steps. President Harry S. Truman and Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson speak in a ceremony in the National Archives Rotunda on the historic importance of the documents.
Before coming to the National Archives, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution had been shuttled around to various buildings for various reasons. They started out in the Department of State, and when the U.S. capital moved from New York to Philadelphia to Washington, DC, these documents moved too. Eventually they were turned over to the Library of Congress. With the exception of a short stay at Fort Knox during World War II, the Declaration and Constitution remained at the Library of Congress from 1921 to 1952.
The Bill of Rights had been given into the safekeeping of the National Archives in 1938. In 1952, the Library of Congress agreed to transfer the Declaration and the Constitution to the National Archives. The Bill of Rights would finally be in the company of the other two founding documents.
On December 13, 1952, an armored Marine Corps personnel carrier made its way down Constitution Avenue, accompanied by two light tanks, four servicemen carrying submachine guns, and a motorcycle escort. A color guard, ceremonial troops, the Army Band, and the Air Force Drum and Bugle Corps were also part of the procession. Members of all the military branches lined the street. Inside the personnel carrier, the parchment documents were held in helium-filled glass cases packed inside wooden crates resting on mattresses.
This primary source comes from the Records of the National Archives and Records Administration.
National Archives Identifier:
12063Full Citation: Motion Picture 64.8; Transfer of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence to the National Archives; 1952; Moving Images Relating to National Archives Activities and Events, 1985 - 1995; Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 64; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/transfer-constitution-declaration-national-archives, April 19, 2024]