CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — As celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary kick off across the country, Americans are reflecting on the history and legacy of the nation’s founding.
Just 14 miles south of Atlanta in Morrow, Georgia, the broad stripes and bright stars of the American flag fly over the Georgia Archives.
Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen went inside to get a rare look at Georgia’s 249-year-old official recorded copy of the Declaration of Independence.
The document rests inside a leather-bound book, peacefully resting in the darkness on the shelves of the archive’s highest security vault.
“Maybe not Fort Knox, but a pretty high level of security,” Hendry Miller said.
Miller is a collections manager for the Georgia Archives.
“You see something this unique and fundamental to Georgia and American history, it’s hard not to get chills,” he said.
The 63-degree air temperature in the climate-controlled vault offers a sharp contrast against the sweltering humidity of summer in Georgia.
But on a summer day like this 250 years ago, America’s founding fathers waited patiently for the document that would decide the future of a nation.
The author, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the initial draft edited with the help of fellow founders Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.
The final draft was formally adopted in colonial Philadelphia at Independence Hall.
Longtime Channel 2 reporter Richard Belcher reads the Declaration of Independence every year on our nation’s birthday.
“The Continental Congress declared it should be proclaimed — read aloud — in the 13 colonies.”
And the Georgia Archives has maintained another tradition to mark the occasion: putting our state’s official record of the Declaration of Independence on display for the public to see.
Georgia’s signers are front and center, right under John Hancock’s famous signature. Together with the signatures of Georgia patriots Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall and George Walton, counties across the state today share the founders’ names — and their legacy.
“It’s certainly a state treasure,” Miller said. “But there’s not going to be any lemon juice or candles near this document.”
Nor will there be white cotton or even plastic gloves. Miller explained that while gloves can help archivists protect valuable historic photographs, they can actually make readers more likely to tear the document when turning to the next page and cotton gloves could leave behind lint.
Their procedures for handling the document are thorough, from temperature controls and foam reading lecterns to planned out movements and cart placements when transporting the artifact in and out of storage.
“It is simultaneously exciting and worrisome to be the steward of this,” Miller said. “It is a great responsibility. We have to make sure these documents stay safe for future generations.”
The document is available for public viewing no more than a few times a year, even for those like Miller who are responsible for its care.
For America’s 250th birthday, or semiquincentennial as Miller referred to it, it’s been on display a few times throughout the spring and summer already.
But it’s not too late to catch this piece of history: it will be open to the public again on July 10 before it goes back into the vault.
“Some of it brings me to tears when I read it, and it never gets old,” Belcher said. “I think most Georgians don’t know. And I hope ... a story like this will encourage people to take a look.”
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