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The 2004 movie National Treasure alleged (among other historically crazy things) that there is a secret map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. There is no map, but there is something on the back of the engrossed and signed parchment. A label at the bottom of the parchment reads, "Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776".
- National Treasure
Fiction: There is a map on the back of the Declaration of...
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Housed at the West Sussex Record Office in Chichester, UK;...
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Resources about the United States Declaration of...
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Tracking the Spread: In 2017, we tracked the spread of the...
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How many copies were originally made of the Declaration of...
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The mission of the Declaration Resources Project is to...
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By Danielle Allen. This spring a small but significant...
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The Declaration is a text which at points makes...
- National Treasure
- THE SCRIPT NEEDED NINE WRITERS TO CRACK THE CODE. Originally planned for a summer 2000 release, National Treasure—based on a concept by Disney marketing head Oren Aviv and DreamWorks television executive Charles Segars—had a Byzantine plot that kept it in a prolonged pre-production period.
- BENJAMIN FRANKLIN REALLY WAS A FREEMASON. Fact and fiction blur considerably in National Treasure, which uses history as a jumping-off point for some major jumps in logic.
- THE CREW USED A BRICK-FOR-BRICK REPLICA OF INDEPENDENCE HALL. It can be tricky to secure permission to film on government property, which is why producers of National Treasure probably considered themselves fortunate when they discovered that Walter Knott of Knott’s Berry Farm fame had built a perfect replica of Independence Hall on his land in Buena Park, California back in the 1960s.
- THAT $100 BILL REALLY DID HAVE A PRECISE TIME ON THE CLOCK. One of Cage’s cryptic clues in the film is reading a time of 2:22 on the clock depicted on the image of Independence Hall on the $100 bill.
Dec 19, 2016 · Fiction: There is a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence, leading to the treasure of the Knights Templar. (Fun) Fact: Independence Hall was not harmed in the making of this movie. Many of the scenes set in Philadelphia were shot on location, in such landmarks as Reading Terminal Market and the Franklin Institute.
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- Freemasons
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With an outrageous plot, "National Treasure" seems like a film that is mostly for entertainment with a sprinkling of historical fact.
Imagine this: Centuries ago an order of European knights amassed a huge treasure of priceless artifacts from around the world.
The loot was later brought to the United States by the Freemasons, a secret society. Determined to keep it out of the hands of the British during the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin and other Masons hid the treasure in a secret location but left clues to its whereabouts in famous American landmarks.
Now, the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of a carriage boy who learned the secret vows to find the treasure. The clues lead him to an invisible map hidden on the back of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Preposterous? Absolutely.
But the plot of National Treasure, the adventure yarn starring Nicolas Cage that opens in U.S. movie theaters today, is also irresistible fun.
For an indication of the public's fascination with secret societies and conspiracy theories, jump on to the Internet, where thousands of wild Web sites claim that shadowy alliances do everything from running international affairs to managing interplanetary treaties.
Perhaps the most famous secret society is the Freemasons, a medieval guild of stonemasons that formed in England in the early 18th century and developed into a powerful fraternity.
The Freemasons have enjoyed a reputation as influential politicians, scientists, and artists whose works and charities have enhanced the world. Some Christian leaders, however, have called it a secret society bent on spreading evil.
Of the 55 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, at least 9 are said to have been Freemasons. President George Washington was also among its members.
In the new movie the Freemasons are seen in a positive light.
"The Masons were founded on pretty solid principles, and a lot of those held for the Founding Fathers and probably influenced them a great deal toward democracy at the time," said Kouf, whose grandfather was a Freemason. "When Washington had trouble raising his army, he called upon his Masonic brothers, because he knew he could count on them."
Although the medieval knights also feature prominently in The Da Vinci Code, it was that novel's main plot twist—that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene—which stirred up real controversy. Could this be true?
"There's no evidence for it in any text," said Joseph Kelly, a professor of religious studies at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, who has given numerous public lectures disproving the "secrets" in Brown's novel.
Kelly says many people are disappointed when he tells them that the marriage never happened. Yet the academic says there are many things in the book that are historically accurate, and he believes the novel serves a valuable purpose.
"Brown tells people something they never knew—that the early history of Christianity was much more complicated than anybody thought," he said.
Kouf, the movie scribe, sees little danger in weaving together fiction and history.
"If we were laying it out as a true story, then I'd agree that we're taking too many liberties," he said. "But because it's set out in an adventure mold like Indiana Jones, I think we're OK. People know some of this stuff didn't happen."
The US National Archives stresses there’s not a secret map hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence as seen in Disney’s 2004 adventure film National Treasure. “There’s no map ...
It contains a secret map. A more modern myth about the Declaration of Independence is that it contains a secret map on its back. We can thank the Nicholas Cage film National Treasure for this tale. Unfortunately, this is just a bit of movie magic. The back of the Declaration contains only a note describing what it is and its date.
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Aug 18, 2023 · Ben untangles the pipe's cryptic message to determine there's a map hidden in invisible ink on the back of the Declaration of Independence. (The clue also mentions "the key in Silence undetected ...
