The National Archives Building, known informally as Archives I, located north of the National Mall on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., opened as its original headquarters in 1935. It holds the original copies of the three main formative documents of the United States and its government: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It also hosts a copy of the 1297 Magna Carta confirmed by Edward I. These are displayed to the public in the main chamber of the National Archives, which is called the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom. The National Archives Building also exhibits other important American historical documents such as the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, the Emancipation Proclamation, and collections of photography and other historically and culturally significant American artifacts. Once inside the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, there are no lines to see the individual documents and visitors are allowed to walk from document to document as they wish. For over 30 years the National Archives have forbidden flash photography but the advent of cameras with automatic flashes have made the rules increasingly difficult to enforce. As a result, all filming, photographing, and videotaping by the public in the exhibition areas has been prohibited since February 25, 2010. An Innovation Hub provides facilities for the public to access NARA documents and provide metadata. Historical records of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are available for research at NARA's Center for Legislative Archives.
The Washington National Records Center, located in Suitland, Maryland is a large warehouse type facility which stores federal records which are still under the control of the creating agency. Federal government agencies pay a yearly fee for storage at the facility. In accordance with federal records schedules, documents at WNRC are transferred to the legal custody of the National Archives after a certain point. Temporary records at WNRC are either retained for a fee or destroyed after retention times has elapsed. WNRC also offers research services and maintains a small research room.
There are facilities across the country with research rooms, archival holdings, and microfilms of documents of federal agencies and courts pertinent to each region.
A regional office in Anchorage, Alaska was closed in 2014 with records for the region transferred to Seattle, Washington. The Seattle facility is planned to be closed by a decision of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in January 2020, with records moved to California and Kansas City.
Federal Records Centers
Federal Records Centers exist in each region that house materials owned by federal government agencies. Federal Records Centers are not open for public research but, in many cases, may be housed in the same complex or building as a National Archives regional office. The federal records centers are also administratively divided into two archival divisions. Division East
The Director of the Federal Records Center Program is considered one of the primary office chiefs in the National Archives Executive for Agency Services. The federal records center program is headquartered at the National Archives at College Park. Both the National Personnel Records Center and the Washington National Records Center are considered part of the federal records center program.
Lenexa Federal Records Center
The Federal Records Center in Lenexa, Kansas is a large underground complex which contains storage vaults for records and artifacts. The center is perhaps best known for holding items from the treatment of John F. Kennedy after his fatal shooting in 1963, including the blood stained dress of Jacqueline Kennedy as well as the hospital gurney on which President Kennedy was pronounced dead.
Presidential libraries
NARA also maintains the Presidential Library system, a nationwide network of libraries for preserving and making available the documents of U.S. presidents since Herbert Hoover. The Presidential Libraries include:
The National Archives Building in downtown Washington holds record collections such as all existing federal census records, ships' passenger lists, military unit records from the American Revolution to the Philippine–American War, records of the Confederate government, the Freedmen's Bureau records, and pension and land records. There are also ten Affiliated Archives locations across the U.S. which hold, by formal, written agreement with NARA, accessioned records.
Beginning in 2012, the National Archives began storing closed records not open to the public, as well as certain lesser used records and files, at contracted storage facilities operated by the records management company "Iron Mountain".
