Last chance to photograph the Constitution

I wrote that two weekends ago I randomly decided to stop at the National Archives and shoot a few flash-free photos of the documents on display there. Imagine my surprise when I was riding the metro this morning and looked down to see a headline on Express newspaper about a photo ban at the National Archives.

I looked it up online later. As it turns out, starting Feb. 24 the Archives will ban all photography, so that might have been the last time I get to snap a photo of the Constitution. As the Washington Post puts it:

About a million visitors pass through the exhibit each year. While there's already a ban on flash photography, archives officials say visitors still shoot about 50,000 flashes of light at the historic documents each year.

And, of course, those flashes further deteriorate the already-faded documents.

The story on DCist.com goes into a little more detail:

Up until 2003, the documents were kept under glass that had filters to block harmful light (UV and certain visible light), but the filters also caused the documents to appear greenish. To "improve the visitor experience," the filters were removed and placed on the light fixtures instead. The change allowed people to see the documents in true color, but also left them vulnerable to the mis-use of flash photography.