BATON ROUGE - The Old State Capitol Museum revealed its newest exhibit Tuesday, centered around the Louisiana Purchase, featuring documents from the agreement itself.

Museum curators say it is rare for this document to go on public display, noting the last time it visited the Old State Capitol was 32 years ago to celebrate the museum's opening.

"It doesn't travel or go on display often due to conservation reasons," Old State Capitol Museum Curator Anne Mahoney said.

The exhibit is called "Bought for a Song: A Young Nation Expands." The Louisiana Purchase itself includes three different documents, one of which is now on display at the Old State Capitol. The document on display is a convention, or agreement, bearing the signature of Napoleon Bonaparte as well as American and French representatives.

It details the sale of the land, more than 800,000 square miles, sold for about $15,000,000, which doubled the size of the United States at the time. Along with the convention, visitors will also get to see France's instrument used to ratify the document.

"People connect with history in a way that is different when you're with the object, hearing the story, where it came from, who used it, why they signed it," Mahoney said.

The French exchange copy of the Louisiana Purchase documents is on loan from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. It comes as part of the celebrations for America's 250th anniversary of independence. Because of the artifact's historical value, curators must take additional measures to protect it.

"Managing your environment, light, temperature, humidity. It's managing the transfer, and it's movement," Mahoney said.

Here in Baton Rouge, state archivists perform similar work to the National Archives on artifacts important to Louisiana history at the State Archives. At any given time, the staff performs similar preservation and display work involving hundreds of historic items.

"Inventorying the records, knowing what we have, cataloging them in such a way that you can find them," State Archivist and Executive Director Melanie Montanaro said.

Montanaro estimates historic records fill between 60,000 and 70,000 cubic feet in the building, all to hold and preserve history for the people of Louisiana and future generations.

"A lot of what we do is all about having things in the proper storage materials and conditions, so it's best situated, so it can try and be with us for years, decades, and hopefully centuries to come," Montanaro said.

The Louisiana Purchase will stay at the Old State Capitol until July 11. During opening week, visitors are asked to reserve a time slot to view the exhibit, which can be found here.