NY Public Library, PA gov announce deal to display Bill of Rights

After years of dormancy, a copy of the Bill of Rights will be on view in the Big Apple, but New Yorkers are going to have to wait awhile and eventually share it with our Philly counterparts.

Under the arrangement library administrators made with the Pennsylvania government Wednesday, the document will on display at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia starting in 2014 and three years later return to New York.

After that, the document will be on display in New York 60% of the time for the next 94 years. The library's copy is one of the 14 original versions of the Bill of Rights. Although it has been in the NYPL's collection since 1896, it hasn't been publicly displayed since 1976 to keep it from deteriorating.

A special $600,000 preservation container will be constructed to house the document and safely transport it between cities.