Declaration of Independence

As July 4th approaches, one of America's iconic national texts, the Declaration of Independence, is beginning to pop up in the news. A 1820 copy of the document fetched $477,650 at auction this month, while a Broadway Theater is reviving the 1960s musical, 1776, for a limited run. Of course, one of the most elaborate shrines to any relic text is the recently renovated Rotunda of the National Archives that displays the Declaration and the U.S. Constitution in Washington, D.C.