National Archives and Records Administration (Corporate Author)

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government established in 1934 to preserve, document, and provide public access to government and historical records, including the Charters of Freedom. It centralized federal record-keeping after earlier decentralized practices led to losses, and evolved into its current form in 1985 following periods under the General Services Administration. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NARA maintains billions of documents, photographs, maps, and electronic records from 1775 to the present.[1][2][7]