After decades of debate over custody, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were moved from the Library of Congress to the National Archives in Washington on December 13, 1952. The transfer ended a long dispute and placed the documents in a new shrine designed for their protection.
The documents arrived at the National Archives Building under heavy security. An armored procession carried them down Constitution Avenue, with troops lining the route. Archivist Wayne Grover formally accepted custody inside the Rotunda under the seventy-five-foot dome.
