The Magna Carta at Fraunces Tavern Museum, New York City

Fraunces Tavern Museum is located at 54 Pearl Street, in lower Manhattan. The building, which dates back to 1719, was the place where George Washington bid farewell to his officers upon retiring his command of the Continental Army after the American Revolutionary War on December 4. 1783. After the war, when New York was the nation’s first capital, the tavern was rented to the new government to house the offices of the Departments of War, Treasury, and Foreign Affairs. It presently holds both restaurants and a museum.

When the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York, announced that one of the four original copies of the 1215 Magna Carta, would be displayed from September 15 through December 15, 2009, at the historic Fraunces Tavern Museum, as part of an exhibit called the "Magna Carta and the Foundations of Freedom," I knew this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to view one of the most important documents ever written and I visited the exhibit on Tuesday to see it.

One of four copies of the 1215 Magna Carta, the document traveled from its location in Lincoln Cathedral, which is located in Lincoln, in the middle of Lincolnshire in the East of England. The Magna Carta has played a significant role in framing legal and democratic structures, including helping to shape the Constitution of the United States of America.

In 1215, in the fields of Runnymede, English barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, which is Latin for "Great Charter," to limit the monarch's power after a series of abuses. It resulted in this wide-ranging document that set lasting precedents such as trial by jury, representative government, and freedom of the church, and became the basis of human rights law and, eventually, of the U.S. government. A wonderful in-depth analysis of the influence the Magna Carta had on our founding fathers can be read at this National Achieve link. An English translation from the original Latin can be read at this link.

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There was no photography allowed in the museum, but a view of one of the copies of the Magna Carta documents on exhibit at The National Archives in Washington. DC can be seen at this link. The Magna Carta was displayed in a new, $70,000 vacuum-sealed display case similar to the one in the photograph above. An interesting story about how it was transported to the United States for this exhibit can be read on this New York Times page.



A major part of the Fraunces Tavern Museum collection is from the Revolutionary War period and includes weapons, documents, and historic relics such as a lock of Washington's hair and one of his false teeth. The Long Room in the museum, as seen in the historical placard above, is the location where George Washington gave his emotional speech to his officers before retiring to his home in Virginia.

As part of the "Foundations of Freedom" component of the Magna Carta, in an exhibit in the Mesick Gallery, there is a display of great documents of American history which are also very inspiring to see. 

Among them are:

1. General George Washington's last-minute orders as he leaves for Yorktown
2. A page of Thomas Newall' war diary of the Battle Of Bunker Hill
3. Emma Lazarus handwritten ode to the Statue of Liberty entitled "The New Colossus," a portion of which is inscribed on a plaque on the base of the statue
4. John Hancock's "No Taxation Without Representation" circular protest letter.
5. A copy of the Declaration of Independence and other documents

The Magna Carta was exhibited briefly in New York at the World’s Fair in 1939, after which it remained safely stored at Fort Knox during World War II. It returned to Lincoln in 1947, and has since visited America for the 1976 Bicentennial, and once again during the 1980s.