National Archives

The building, completed in 1935 and designed by John Russell Pope in a neoclassical style, serves as the public face of the National Archives and Records Administration. The Rotunda’s Charters of Freedom are encased in argon-filled titanium and aluminum enclosures to prevent deterioration, and the parchment documents remain largely legible despite their age.

Beyond the Charters exhibit, the Archives hold billions of pages of federal records spanning census data, military service records, immigration files, and congressional proceedings. The institution is the primary research destination for historians and genealogists working with government materials dating back to the founding era.