British Consulate to bring Magna Carta to Houston
Partnership with Hereford Cathedral in the UK will bring an original edition of the Magna Carta to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
The Magna Carta will leave the Hereford Catherdral in the UK for the first time since the early 1200s and will travel to Houston for an exhibition at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas.
The British Consulate General Houston will partner with Hereford Cathedral in the UK to bring an original edition of the Magna Carta to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Hereford’s copy of the Magna Carta, dated from 1217, will be a featured exhibition at HMNS beginning in February 2014 through mid-August.
The Magna Carta will be accompanied by the King’s Writ, a document dated 1215 and issued from Runnymede ahead of that issue of the Magna Carta. The King’s Writ, the only known example, warned local sheriffs of the charter’s impending arrival so that they could prepare its implementation. This is the first time that either document will leave Hereford Cathedral since they were received in the early 1200s.
“This is a momentous occasion for both the UK and Texas,” British Consul General Andrew Millar said of the announcement. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to celebrate the many UK-Texas connections with the arrival of the Magna Carta—a document that gave birth to basic civil liberties and the concept of a constitution.”
The Magna Carta is considered to be the UK’s most valuable export to the world and a model upon which the United States Constitution – among many other important world documents – was based. The British Consulate General in Houston will partner with both organisations to launch the exhibit and promote the strong UK-Texas ties in the region.
For more on what the British Consulate General in Houston is doing in the region, visit the consulate’s Facebook Page and follow them on Twitter.