Last year the State of Maryland's Archives used $600,000 in matching funds
($625,000 was raised through its related group called Friends of the
Maryland State Archives) to complete purchased George Washington's speech of
resignation as commander-in-chief, which was made to the Continental
Congress, meeting in Annapolis while it was serving temporarily as the
Nation's Capital. Washington resigned his commission to return to private
life on December 23, 1783, at the end of the Revolutionary War.
As a citizen of the State I have no problem with this use of my tax dollars,
and heard of no great protest of the plan when it was announced by the
Governor last February.
Good for you Hugh. The citizens of Maine should take you up on the offer.
Display and protection are competing needs, but there are many examples of
how to accomplish both.
Tod Chernikoff, CRM
Silver Spring, MD
----- Original Message -----
From: "Hugh Smith" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 23:01
Subject: Re: [RM] Maine's copy of the Declaration of Independence
On Dec 11, 2007, at 12:02 AM, RECMGMT-L automatic digest system wrote:
> State wants 1776 document back
> MaineToday.com - Portland,ME,USA
> ... The state will go to court in January to try to recover a 1776 copy
> of
> the Declaration of Independence, State Archivist David Cheever said
> today....
> <http://news.mainetoday.com/updates/019285.html>
>
If Maine wins this back, I will volunteer to build them a FIRELOCK
vault for free to protect the document. That would be the Crown Jewel
of protection.
North Carolina was able to win back their copy. What a coup for the
State of Maine Archive.
The trouble is protecting the document from destruction but still
making it available so the people of the State can revel in it is
always a challenge. That is the challenge of every Museum. A one
week schedule of Exhibition each year is a good way to do it. You
schedule a special evening exhibition for those who donate $5,000 to
the continued care and corporations would line up.
For comparison what is the record breaking home run ball worth? And
that ball had about 5 seconds of historical life and only one
worthwhile signatory. That means a good copy of the Declaration of
Independence should be worth $250,000,000 easy.
A document like this would bring out benefactors from all over the
State. Who would not want to be a part of such a collection?
Although I saw some of the comments to the newspaper article such as
"Don't spend any money getting it back." The cold must be affecting
that person's brain.
D.C. has one at the National Archive and Connecticut is supposed to
have a really pristine copy. I cannot name all the other copies that
exist but this is exciting new for citizens and historians in Maine.
You could piece together the whole history on the Maine signers, put
it on exhibit for a week each year, sell copies of it like they do at
the National Archives and you would have enough money to keep it
forever. Over time wealthy benefactors would want to build it a new
home just to put their family's name on the project that protected
such an artifact.
Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
[log in to unmask]
(610) 756-4440 Fax (610) 756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM

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