A rare original copy of the Declaration of Independence will be on display in Austin on Friday and Saturday.
Hundreds of students from Anderson High School and its feeder schools will view the document Friday before the display is opened to the general public at 5 p.m.
The copy is one of 200 printed at a shop owned by John Dunlap in 1776. It is the only one of the remaining 25 copies to tour the country.
"They needed to recruit folks to fight in the army, to fight against the British, so basically they printed a couple hundred copies of this and they sent it out to the countryside," said Julie Cowan, a parent volunteer working to get the Anderson High School library ready to display the copy. "It just states, 'We want to be free.' It says, "We don't think Britain has the right to do this to us.' ''
Donna Houser, principal at Anderson High School, says the school is honored to host the document.
"The broadside copies offered the first public viewing of the wording of the declaration," she said. "They were posted in shop windows so they could see what the wording was like, to see if they could support what was in the Declaration of Independence."
She says seeing the original copy should help students get a greater sense of history.
"It immerses you more in the writing of it and the reason it came about," she said. "I think it makes a real statement to the kids about what it was like back in the colonies when they decided to declare their independence."
A flea market shopper found the copy inside a framed picture he bought at a flea market in 1989 for $4. In June 2000, television producer Norman Lear and others bought the document for $8.14 million.
Now, the Pearson Foundation and the group Declare Yourself are sponsoring a tour in which the original copy is taken to six schools nationwide that had high participation in a mock election last year. Anderson is the only Texas school on the list.
"It really serves as a birth certificate for the nation," said Adriana Villarreal, a spokesperson for the Pearson Foundation. "We're thrilled to be able to give students and their families really front row access to such a rare piece of American history."
She says security is tight for the original copy, which travels in a hand-held, temperature-controlled glass case.
"It always has at least two officials from law enforcement who guard it," Villarreal said.
While on display, the temperature must be between 67 and 72 degrees, and humidity must be between 45 and 50 percent. There can be no direct light on the document, so no flash photography is permitted. Anderson even put up exit curtains to keep wind and humidity away as viewers leave the library.
The copy will be on public display from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at the Anderson High School Library, 8403 Mesa Drive iin north Austin.
It will be on display at the LBJ Library, 2313 Red River Street, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6.
