Where is the engrossed parchment Declaration of Independence displayed today?

The engrossed parchment Declaration of Independence is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

The document is housed in the National Archives’ Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, alongside the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The parchment is the famous signed version that Americans commonly recognize from reproductions and photographs.

The declaration had several documentary forms, including printed broadsides produced soon after adoption. The engrossed copy was a formal handwritten version prepared for signatures, making it different from the first printed copies distributed in 1776. That distinction explains why historians discuss both the declaration as a public text and the parchment as a physical artifact.

During World War II, the founding documents were moved temporarily for protection to the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky. The engrossed Declaration returned to Washington after the war and was transferred to the National Archives in 1952.