Hello educational travelers!

It’s the beginning of a new week which means a fresh new set of student tour blog posts are coming your way! To kick things off, we have another wonderful post from our very own Jeff Stabins.

I hope you enjoy!

As America plans to celebrate its 240th birthday next year, it’s nice to recall the document that started it all; the Declaration of Independence. Written primarily by a young Thomas Jefferson, it contains one of the best known sentences in all the English language. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Fifty-six brave men risked everything they held dear when they affixed their signatures upon that treasured document.

Educational tours to Washington, D.C. allow teachers and their students to view firsthand the original Declaration of Independence, when they visit the National Archives Building, which is north of the National Mall on Constitution Avenue. Opened in 1935, it is also home to the United States Constitution, Bill of Rights, the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, and the Emancipation Proclamation. When on a student tour of the National Archives, tour participants will also have the opportunity to view the existing federal census records which date back to 1790, as well as the military unit records from the American Revolution to the Philippine-American War, records of the Confederate government, and the Freedmen’s Bureau records. Educational tours of the National Archives also allow students to review passenger lists from 1820 to 1960 and every soldier’s draft registration card from World Wars One and Two.

July 4, 1776 was a brutally hot day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when the assembled Congress ratified the text of the Declaration of Independence. Though the actual vote for independence had occurred two days prior, the initial date founding father John Adams thought would be celebrated with much pomp and fireworks, a student trip to Washington D.C. and the National Archives will help explain the reasoning for celebrations to take place on the fourth.

I hope you’ll decide to join EA Tours on an educational student tour to Washington, D.C. to view this significant piece of American history for yourself. It’s quite remarkable!

Until then, keep traveling,

Jeff.