By Shreya J. Singh

July 4, 2026 will be America’s Semiquincentennial, or the 250th anniversary of the ratification of the Declaration of Independence. Although there is still more than a year until this date, many organizations have already begun campaigns to spread awareness about its significance. The official group working in this area is America250, which is giving young citizens a chance to join the conversation through their multimedia contest — America’s Field Trip.

America’s Field Trip is a scholastic competition for school students from grades 3-12 hosted by America250, a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to find ways to commemorate the upcoming Semiquincentennial. The goal of the contest is to reflect on the prompt “What does America mean to you?” and create a thoughtful and personal response in art or essay form.

The pilot contest ran from March to May of 2024. Seventy-five first-place awardees from all over the United States were chosen from among the thousands of submissions. As the name implies, the prize for this contest is the opportunity to visit a destination that showcases a facet of American history. As a winner, I hoped to visit the National Archives. Happily, I was assigned that trip.

In late August, I traveled to Washington, DC with six of my fellow first-prize winners from all across the country to visit the headquarters of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

NARA is the federal government’s primary record-keeping institution. While certain exhibits and sections of it are open to the public, the majority of the documents it handles are filed in the staff-only sections of the building. As special guests, the tour we took included certain restricted areas which would have otherwise been off-limits.

To reach the Archives, we headed downtown to the heart of Washington DC, in the city’s Northwest quadrant. Sitting across the National Mall and the National Sculpture Garden, the National Archives building’s neoclassical style and mysterious statues make it one of the most notable buildings in the city. At the entrance of the Archives, at the base of its majestic wide steps, there are two statues that stand on each side. They represent the four watchers and defenders of knowledge: Past, Future, Heritage, and Guardianship.

Soon after arriving, our small tour group had the opportunity to meet with the Archivist of the United States, who functions as the highest-ranking employee at the National Archives. All of us asked questions about the position and responsibilities of the Archivist. We learned about the history of the Archives, and how it was founded in 1935 in response to a need for a cohesive system of federal documentation.

After a short but lively conversation, she demonstrated the Washington, DC tradition of exchanging challenge coins — flat metal disks engraved with images from certain government institutions. Each of us received a challenge coin with an image of the National Archives building on it. Meeting the Archivist was a fascinating experience and an honor in itself, but the best of the tour was yet to come.

Next, we were led by the Special Assistant to the Archivist to the room where the original copies of the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and Bill of Rights (collectively called the Charters of Freedom) are housed. Each document was written in careful calligraphy on a large, cream-colored piece of parchment that was yellowing with age. They were held in secure glass cases, making them visible but fully protected from the elements. The Declaration of Independence was extremely faded, as it was displayed near a window in the Patent Office Building during the 19th century. However, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights were still legible. As replicas and images often depict, “We the People” is really scripted larger and more flamboyantly than any other words in the U.S. Constitution! Additionally, the signatures ratifying the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were visible, and the tour guide helpfully pointed them out to us.

Then, Trevor K. Plante, an archivist, hosted a behind-the-scenes tour of one of the National Archives’ many high-security vaults. Only three employees are granted regular access to the one we entered. Within its concrete walls and card access-only door, it held artifacts such as President Lincolns’ telegrams to money from the Revolutionary War to early treaties between the United States Government and Native American tribes. The vault was completely climate-controlled, and contained shelves upon shelves of documents that dated all the way back to before America’s founding. It was truly a place where delicate historical treasures from the past could be safely handled and carefully stored. Additionally, we learned that the National Archives stores documents in different locations across the country. The most relevant of these facilities, known as the “Archives II,” is located in College Park, Maryland.

Once we had explored the history-rich vaults within the Archives, we headed back into the main corridors and were guided to a recently-installed exhibit of the Magna Carta. Housed within a glass-paneled stand near the main wall of the exhibit, the document on display was one of the four original copies of this groundbreaking charter. Although it was over 400 years older than the Charters of Freedom, it was about the same size and length as the Declaration of Independence. Unlike the Declaration of Independence, however, the writing on this copy of the Magna Carta was dark enough to be legible. I could clearly see that it was a legal contract between the King and rebellious nobles, and outlined what we now consider to be fundamental principles of democracy, such as the leaders not being above the law. Viewing this document in the National Archives was a pleasant surprise.

Finally, we explored the restoration labs. In the labs, art and science come together to help preserve and restore centuries-old documents. At one work station, a specialist presented a torn map of Puerto Rico, which had been drawn in the 1600s. At another, we observed how long-fingered Japanese tissue paper is used to seamlessly seal small tears in documents. Personally, I gained a whole new perspective on document restoration through this experience. I learned that up to 40 hours can go into restoring a single piece of work, and every document has unique needs for its restoration process. Learning about the restoration laboratory was the perfect way to conclude the tour. I really appreciated this glimpse into how old, tattered, sometimes illegible documents became pieces that are sturdy, readable, and ready to be filed in the Archives.

Touring the Archives as a part of the celebration of America’s Semiquincentennial was truly an insightful experience. I learned so much about the Charters of Freedom, archiving documents, and document restoration. For me, viewing our nation’s founding documents was especially inspiring. America’s history is defined through documentation, and the National Archives is the institution that holds that history — and more importantly, that shares it with the world.

All images courtesy of Shreya J. Singh