Statewide, Iowa – Our nation’s three most important and revered documents are enclosed in titanium display cases in the rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and they rest on custom-made archival paper created at the University of Iowa.
Tim Barrett, the now-retired director of the U-I Center for the Book, says he got the call in 1999 to create the special paper to cradle the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. Was that his dream job?
The center on the Iowa City campus had developed a sterling reputation for being able to create special types of handmade paper from pure American-grown, textile-quality cotton using a custom-built press. There was just one problem:
It took a few months to assemble and perfect using everything, and then it was just a matter of minutes to create the paper, which took another day to press and dry. In all, they shipped a few dozen sheets of the additive-free paper to the National Archives, and it should be good for many decades to come.
The highly-fortified cases were designed with aluminum plates as a base for the precious documents, which were written some two-and-a-half centuries ago on vellum, a parchment made from animal skin.
The U-I Center for the Book is dedicated to preserving arts that date back centuries, like bookbinding, letterpress printing, and making paper by hand. Barrett says it was a tremendous honor to be chosen for this project by the National Archives, which hosts more than a million visitors every year.
He says all residents of the state, when they go to see the Declaration of Independence and the other documents, should feel a sense of gratification.
And by the way, the masterminded theft of the Declaration of Independence depicted in the 2004 film “National Treasure” starring Nicolas Cage? Barrett says rest assured, it’ll never happen.
