By Brandon Hill on April 28, 2013 • ( Leave a comment )

Washington DC 2012: National Archives

After visiting the Smithsonian Museums we decided to take a quick walk by the National Archives and we realized that the line to get in was not too long, so we decided to go in. The National Archives most famously houses the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, and a one of the original copies of the Magna Carta. While this was a a solemn and powerful experience, I will admit that many of the documents are so faded now, that they are almost impossible to read in the light provided. While this was a little disappointing, it did highlight the fragility of man and man made documents and ideals.

Understandably, they do not allow any pictures to be taken inside to protect the integrity of these very old documents. I was only able to take a couple of pictures of the outside of the building. So I made the ephemera from the Archives gift shop the main focus of the page.

The left hand page has part of a facsimile of the Constitution. I then overlaid the clear plastic bag from the National Archives gift shop over the top of it to act as the Title for the page. I used a punch to cut holes in the four corners of the page, and used brads to hold the plastic in place over the Constitution. I really like the way that this turned out. It is difficult to tell in this picture – but the words on the plastic really appear to float over the facsimile.

On the right hand page I put the pictures that I took of the Archives along with a Thomas Jefferson cutout (he is holding the Declaration of Independence), a patch from the Archives gift shop, and the brochure to the National Archives Experience (which is affixed to the outside of the plastic sheet protector so that the reader can open it to view).