Pennsylvania Charter to go on display at its new home

Harrisburg (WHTM) For years, the Pennsylvania Charter would be brought out for exhibit at the State Museum in Harrisburg on or around March 4. That was the date in 1681 that the charter was presented to William Penn by King Charles II.

Getting it to the Museum could be nerve-wracking.

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For most of the year, the charter stayed in a climate-controlled vault located on an upper floor in the Archives Building, next to the museum. To move it, archivists had to open the vault, carefully place the cases containing the four sheets of parchment that make up the charter on dollies, roll them into an elevator, go down to the ground floor, and then wheel them through several corridors to the museum.

There the cases would be set in place, go on exhibit for several days, then make the whole trip in reverse. Both there and back again there were potential catastrophes to worry about – changes in temperature and humidity affecting the parchment, bumps in the corridor floors shaking loose the ink (which sits on the parchment, and doesn’t soak in), and the whole process of lifting the cases off the carts and onto their display stands, which is not a time when you want to hear someone say “Oops!”

William Penn’s charter goes on display in Harrisburg

But this year, the Charter is in a new vault in its new home in the new archive building on N. 6th Street in Harrisburg. On March 10 it will go on exhibit to mark the 343rd anniversary of Charles II making William Penn the biggest landowner in the world.

Putting it on display will now be much easier than in the past. Howard Pollman, Director, External Affairs for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, tells us in an email that “The process to set up the Charter display in the new PA State Archives building will be shorter and less labor intensive than the move from Archives to The State Museum since the Charter is moving from the secure storage vault to another location within the same building. It will also be easier on the Charter itself.”

Happy birthday to the OTHER William Penn

The Charter will be displayed in the Original Documents Reading Room in the old cases, but with new bases. (The previous bases were designed to rest on the step in front of the facsimile Charter at the museum.)

The time the Charter will spend outside its vault will be brief. It will be placed on display in the Original Documents Reading Room on the morning of Sunday, March 10 (Charter Day). It will stay on display from 12-4 p.m., then returned to the secure storage vault. While the Charter is displayed, a security guard and a Capitol Police Officer will be present.

Midstate Markers: The State Archives

The Charter display is part of a bigger celebration of the 343rd anniversary of Pennsylvania’s 343rd birthday. It will include free admission to state-owned historic sites and museums along the Pennsylvania Trails of History. Locally, these include Cornwall Iron Furnace, Ephrata Cloister, Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, Pennsylvania Military Museum, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, and the State Museum of Pennsylvania.

To learn more about Pennsylvania Trails of History, click here.

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