We encourage reading room visitors to book their visit and order documents in advance, although this is not essential. You do not need to book to visit our exhibition, shop or cafe.
Please note: from April 2024 to early 2025, we are replacing the repository windows in the older part of our building. The work is likely to be noisy and may cause some noise disturbance in the reading rooms. We apologise for any disruption to your visit. Learn more.
Entry to the National Archives is free. Reservations are not required for individuals or groups wishing to enter the National Archives Museum through the General Public Entrance, but reservations are strongly suggested between March and Labor Day to avoid potentially long lines outside.
We develop the information that we disseminate from reliable sources and use generally accepted methods for data collection, archival description, and editorial preparation. We thoroughly review information before we disseminate it.
Domesday Book is the oldest government record held in The National Archives. In fact there are two Domesday Books – Little Domesday and Great Domesday, which together contain a great deal of information about England in the 11th century.
The National Archives museum houses billions of letters, photographs, video and audio recordings, drawings, maps, posters, treaties and a ton more. Everything preserved in the National Archives documents the stories of America's history, as a nation and as a people.
The original lawsuit was filed by the publishers in June 2020 and argued that the Internet Archive had digitized “millions of print books and [distributed] the resulting bootleg ebooks free of charge from its site, without the consent of the publishers and their authors or the payment of any license fee.”
Encounter the original founding documents of the United States in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, the permanent home of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States, and Bill of Rights.
The Sumerian archaic cuneiform script and the Egyptian hieroglyphs are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate symbol systems from 3400 to 3200 BCE, with earliest coherent texts from about 2600 BCE.
Truman presided over the unveiling of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States, and Bill of Rights in the Rotunda of the National Archives. For more than 60 years, visitors have come to view the original signed documents that have come to be known as “The Charters of Freedom.”
Introduction: My name is Saturnina Altenwerth DVM, I am a witty, perfect, combative, beautiful, determined, fancy, determined person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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