On August 16th, 2006, New Jersey’s original Bill of Rights left the state for the second time since its receipt by the State Legislature in 1789. The large, framed manuscript joined the four-page Ratification of the United States Constitution for a short trip to Philadelphia, where it was digitally scanned at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia’s Regional Digital Imaging Center. The Center owns specialized equipment designed for scanning of oversized and framed materials, allowing the scans to be done while the documents remained in their specialized housings, suspended in a conservator’s string-matting and behind plexiglass. Athenaeum staff thrilled to be of service to the New Jersey State Archives, within the Department of State, noting that New Jersey’s statehood charters were among the most notable documents to be imaged at the regional center. The Bill’s prior out-of-state “adventure” was also to Philadelphia for the purpose of publicly displaying the document. In 1991, the parchment was featured in a national exhibition commemorating the Bill of Rights bicentennial at Independence Hall National Park in 1991.

Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells joined DARM Director Karl J. Niederer, Chief of Archives Joseph R. Klett, and Bruce Laverty, Curator of Architecture at the Athenaeum for the momentous occasion. Thanks to the regional center, images of the Bill and Ratification are now accessible online (see below), and are also now reproducible. New Jersey was the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights, being the first ten amendments to the federal constitution. The Garden State was the third to ratify the constitution itself, on December 18th, 1787. The four-page ratification contains the full text of our national charter, with its preamble commencing, in proud, bold script “We the People of the United States …”

The State Archives would like to acknowledge the Superior Court of New Jersey, Middlesex Vicinage, and the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission, who partially funded the digitization project.

Click on the links below for images and transcriptions of the documents, as well as further information about and pictures from the scanning event.