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Hidden gems: the world's documents are inside

Karpeles Museum in Tacoma is a walk through history

The imposing entrance to the Karpeles Museum. Photo credit: Jackson Hogan

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Many of history's most important moments required documents of some sort. When Einstein discovered the theory of relativity, he had to write it down somewhere. If someone wrote a book or a play or an opera, there was always a first draft. Generals didn't have Microsoft Word to type out declarations of war or surrender. Without manuscripts, history would be difficult to preserve. Luckily, not only have the Karpeles museums collected many of these important artifacts to bring the past to life, but they also chose Tacoma as a location for one of its galleries.

There are 14 different Karpeles branches, all in mid-sized cities around the country, such as Jacksonville, Florida; Santa Barbara, California; and Duluth, Minnesota. Tacoma definitely fits the mid-sized city bill, and, according to Tacoma Karpeles Museum Branch Director Tom Jutilla, founder David Karpeles' decision of putting it here instead of Seattle was a conscious choice.

"David Karpeles saw bigger cities, and thought (the museums would) have more impact in smaller cities," Jutilla said. "He found that typically, people in larger cities liked visiting the satellite towns anyway, and with all the museums popping up in Tacoma, he was right."

Jutilla said that Karpeles decided to start the chain of museums after amassing a small fortune in real estate. The Santa Barbara native, always a collector, chose to use his wealth to purchase important historical documents and let people around the country see them at no charge.

So if the museum is free, there must not be anything worth seeing, right?

Think again: Karpeles brought its A-game when it comes to essential manuscripts. The giant collection rotates from museum to museum, so if you visit every few months, you'll see a completely different set of artifacts each time. Currently, the Tacoma branch features the 1909 contract from a U.S. book publisher to Gaston Leroux for the publishing rights to his wildly influential novel The Phantom of the Opera, for starters. There's also the Japanese Instrument of Surrender from after World War II, the original draft of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, and the first message in Morse Code from Samuel Morse himself.

Those examples barely scrape the surface of what the Karpeles system of museums has to offer. According to its website, some of the museums' rotating papers include the Emancipation Proclamation, the original copy of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and even incredibly important text, such as the very first printing of the Ten Commandments from the Gutenberg Bible. Jutilla, a history buff himself, said that he has his personal favorites.

"There are so many documents that take my breath away, from Einstein's theory of relativity, to the decree ordering Joan of Arc's execution, to the Sputnik blueprints," he said.

Sure, history museums and websites can tell you about historical events and even feature some bells and whistles. However, why do that when you can see history right in front of you, unaltered?

Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, 407 South G St., Tacoma, free, 253.383.2575

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