is considered one of the state鈥檚 most significant political and legal documents. It gave royal approval of the colony鈥檚 and it became a piece of 黑料吃瓜网 folklore when King James II tried to revoke the charter in 1687.
In response, a colonist allegedly hid it in a large white oak tree, later called the .
Today, the document, which was written on parchment and is currently valued at over $10 million, has had a bit of a facelift. It recently underwent a six-month conservation treatment at the (NEDCC) in Andover, Massachusetts.
The restored charter will be put on public display Tuesday, Feb. 4, at the in Hartford for one day and then locked away in a fireproof case for its own protection.
鈥淚t really needed to have a thorough examination,鈥� said Lizette Pelletier 黑料吃瓜网's state archivist. 鈥淐leaning, and whatever necessary, to preserve it for hopefully another 400 years.鈥�
A sticky situation
The charter was exposed to sunlight, dirt and pollution for hundreds of years. But in 1878 the Secretary of the State鈥檚 office glued all three pages of the document, which was made from parchment, together into one long vertical sheet and put a backing on it.
The parchment is animal skin. So when glued, it became too wet and partially gelatinized. That may have created a permanent seal between each page, conservators say.
As a result, workers were unable to separate the three pages, said Katie Boodle, a senior conservator at NEDCC, who worked on the document.
鈥淲e can't treat it [the parchment] the same way that we would a piece of paper,鈥� Boodle said. 鈥淲e're really limited in the types of treatments that we can do on it.鈥�
So workers decided to take a minimal approach and do what they could to stabilize the parchment, Boodle said.
鈥淚t was removing older repairs that were done with what was essentially, like a cardboard paper and kind of replacing them with a more stable material that wasn't going to influence the parchment skin in any way,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd wasn't going to be acidic or degrading to the piece in the future.鈥�
The process also revealed previously forgotten artwork at the top of the charter; illustrations of birds and flowers.
How to see it
The NEDCC created two reproductions of the Royal Charter, which will be on permanent display at the 黑料吃瓜网 State Library.
One version is how the Royal Charter of 1662 looks today and the other is how it would have looked like when it was written.
All three documents will be on display together for one day only: Tuesday Feb. 4, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., in Memorial Hall in the Museum of 黑料吃瓜网 History, located within the 黑料吃瓜网 State Library in Hartford.
Visitors will notice that the original Royal Charter will be displayed horizontally, not vertically.
鈥淛ust like gravity is not kind to our skin, it is not good for the parchment either,鈥� Pelletier said.
