Indiana’s most famous documents are not only restored, they are on public view for the first time in the State’s history. A specially designed display case for them in the State House rotunda was dedicated on January 19, 2000. Governor Frank O’Bannon, Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard, legislative leaders, and Thomas P. Yoder, President of the Indiana State Bar Association, participated in the unveiling.

Friends Board Member Senator James W. Merritt, Jr., took the lead in finding a way to put the 1816 and 1851 State Constitutions on display. “After all that work restoring them it seemed a shame to lock them up where they couldn’t be seen.” Working with the late Harry V. Huffman, also a Friends Board Member, they obtained funding from the Indiana State Bar Association for a unique display case.

Hamilton Exhibits of Indianapolis constructed the case, which has special environmental and security features to protect the documents. It is decorated with a veneer of wood from the original Constitution Elm in Corydon.

Chunks of the tree, under which delegates to the 1816 Constitutional Convention occasionally met, were preserved when the tree fell victim to Dutch Elm disease in 1925.

The restored State Constitutions will be on display each year between Statehood Day and the close of the legislative session and for special events. Photographic replicas will replace the original documents in the case during the rest of the year.