The Declaration of Independence and the Hand of Time

Every year, more than a million visitors come to the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, to see the Declaration of Independence. Sometimes you can see them in the Rotunda, patiently waiting for a good position in front of the encasement containing the Declaration. They bend low over the glass to try to make out the faint script and identify the names of the signers. The Declaration continues to instill a sense of awe. But the physical document itself has suffered greatly over the years. Its legibility is greatly diminished, and the document today is much different in appearance from when it was penned in 1776. Compared to the legibility of the U.S. Constitution (1787) and Bill of Rights (1791), which are only slightly more recent, the differences are startling.  

So what happened to this revered document? There is little written evidence of what may have happened—or when—to alter the document. However, by piecing together the history and travels of the Declaration, and by examining key photographs, we can answer some questions about how the document got to its current state.