This post was written by Hatchet reporter Regina Park.
One of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta is finally on display at the Library of Congress after three years of preparation.
The document will celebrate its 800th anniversary in D.C. as the centerpiece of the library’s newest exhibit, “Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor,” which opened on Thursday and aims to show the Magna Carta’s influence on democracy and civil liberties in the United States.
The historical document joins 76 other pieces as part of a 10-week exhibit in the world’s largest library that will also showcase George Washington’s draft of the Constitution and James Madison’s personal copy of the Bill of Rights.
It isn’t the first time the Magna Carta has graced the library halls: During World War II, the library kept safeguarded the document when war struck its usual home in London.
Now, after 73 years, the Magna Carta has returned.
The exhibit, designed by local firm HealyKohler Design, organizes the documents in a way that encourages visitors to draw links between the Magna Carta and its impact on American law.
Beginning with the Magna Carta’s creation in 1216, the exhibit traces the charter’s impact on documents written by the Founding Fathers and how concepts of the Magna Carta have shown up in past and present-day U.S. Supreme Court cases.
“We look at Magna Carta and those things, those liberties that come down through the Magna Carta — due process of law, trial by jury, habeas corpus and executive power,” Cheryl Regan, the exhibit director, said.
But bringing the “Great Charter” to the Library of Congress was a grueling three-year process.
The federal government needed to secure the document against damage and the library itself had to apply as an institution for indemnification.
“It is a complicated process,” Regan said. “These are national treasures and they’re leaving their country of origin.”
A curator was specifically assigned to the Magna Carta to follow its journey to the U.S., testing the document regularly to prevent the environment, and most importantly exposure to light, from affecting the quality of the paper.
And the document even traveled inside a special case built in the U.K. as an extra measure of protection.
Much of the three years of preparations were also spent fundraising for the exhibit. The Law Library undertook a massive fundraising campaign exclusively for the exhibit, even going beyond the library’s donor list and pulling more donors for a single exhibit than ever before.
Regan said she believes the extra support stems from the Magna Carta’s symbolism for the power of law.
“They appealed to the law community and the Magna Carta is a touchstone for the law community,” Regan said.
The exhibit’s 10-week showing is a short run for the Library of Congres, which tends to run exhibits for six months. The document will then return to England’s Lincoln Cathedral, but an online tour will be available for those who can’t make the visit.
