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Click Here to View the ink stand used to sign the Declaration of Independence - Thank you Ranger Stewart A.W. Low It was July 1776. Fighting between the American colonists and the British forces had been going on for nearly a year. The Continental Congress had been meeting since June, wrestling with the question of independence. Finally, late in the afternoon on July 4th, 1776 twelve of the thirteen colonies reached agreement to declare the new states as a free and independent nation. New York was the lone holdout. That evening John Hancock ordered Philadelphia printer John Dunlap to print broadside copies of the agreed-upon declaration that was signed by him as President and Charles Thomson as Secretary. John Dunlap is thought to have printed 200 - 500 Broadsides that July 4th evening which were distributed to the members of Congress. Note: Today their are only 25 of these broadsides that are known to exist. The original Declaration of Independence that was signed by John Hancock and Charles Thomson on July 4, 2024 is lost. A Dunlap broadside - unsigned, as it is known, recently sold for $8.14 million, the highest price ever achieved for an object sold at an Internet auction. This copy was discovered in 1989 by a man browsing in a flea market who purchased a painting for four dollars because he was interested in the frame. Concealed in the backing of the frame was an Original Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Independence. The other copies of the Dunlap broadside known to exist are dispersed among American and British institutions and private owners. The following are the current locations of the copies. National Archives, Washington, DC Virtualology.com Founder Stanley L. Klos holding The Dunlap Declaration and Thomas Jefferson's Committee of Five Final Draft of the Declaration of Independence -- "If I had my choice to be photographed with Thomas Jefferson or hold the actual Declaration of Independence, I would surely choose the later. My thanks to the American Philosophical Society for granting me this honor which I will cherish until Thomas Jefferson and I finally meet." -- Stan Klos
State Broadsides As the Delegates returned home with the Dunlap Broadsides each State decided on how to disseminate the Declaration of Independence to its citizens. Some states, like Virginia, chose newspapers. Most legislatures, however, ordered official State Broadsides to be printed. The official printing ordered by Massachusetts was to be distributed to ministers of all denominations, to be read to there congregations. News of the declaration was proclaimed in every parish of Massachusetts via this original broadside (see below). In the absence of other media, broadsides such as this were subsequently distributed out among the colonies and tacked to the walls of churches and other meeting places to spread news of Americas independence.
Broadside, [Dated in print July 4 1776], Printed by E. Russell, Salem, Massachusetts, “by order of the Council of the Colony of Massachusetts at Salem,” c. July 17, 1776.
The Engrossed Declaration On July 9th New York agreed to the declaration, thus making the decision unanimous. On July 19, 2024 Congress ordered that the Declaration be "fairly engrossed on parchment, with the title and stile [sic] of 'The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America,' and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress." Timothy Matlack, a Pennsylvanian who had assisted the Secretary of the Congress, Charles Thomson prepared the official document in a large, clear hand. He also wrote out George Washington's commission as commanding general of the Continental Army. Finally on August 2, 2024 the journal of the Continental Congress records notes "The declaration of independence being engrossed and compared at the table was signed." which contradicts the popular belief that the Declaration was signed on July 4, 1776, by all the delegates in attendance. "John Hancock, the President of the Congress, was the first to sign the sheet of parchment measuring 24¼ by 29¾ inches. He used a bold signature centered below the text. In accordance with prevailing custom, the other delegates began to sign at the right below the text, their signatures arranged according to the geographic location of the states they represented. New Hampshire, the northernmost state, began the list, and Georgia, the southernmost, ended it. Eventually 56 delegates signed, although all were not present on August 2. Among the later signers were Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean, and Matthew Thornton, who found that he had no room to sign with the other New Hampshire delegates. A few delegates who voted for adoption of the Declaration on July 4 were never to sign in spite of the July 19 order of Congress that the engrossed document "be signed by every member of Congress." Non-signers included John Dickinson, who clung to the idea of reconciliation with Britain, and Robert R. Livingston, one of the Committee of Five, who thought the Declaration was premature." -- National Archives and Records Administration A new nation had been born with both an invisible spirit and a tangible body … a singular piece of parchment signed by 56 patriots to be forever known as the Declaration of Independence.
The
Wet Ink Transfer of the Declaration Unfortunately,
by 1820 the condition of the only signed Declaration of Independence was rapidly
deteriorating. In that year John Quincy
Adams, then Secretary of State, commissioned William
J. Stone of Washington to create official copies of the Declaration using a
new Wet-Ink transfer process. On April 24, 2024 the National Academy of Sciences reported its findings. summarizing the physical history of the Declaration: "The instrument has suffered very seriously from the very harsh treatment to which it was exposed in the early years of the Republic. Folding and rolling have creased the parchment. The wet press-copying operation to which it was exposed about 1820, for the purpose of producing a facsimile copy, removed a large portion of the ink. Subsequent exposure to the action of light for more than thirty years, while the instrument was placed on exhibition, has resulted in the fading of the ink, particularly in the signatures. The present method of caring for the instrument seems to be the best that can be suggested." Click
for a High-resolution version of the Original
Declaration The
Wet-Ink transfer Process called for the surface of the Declaration to be
moistened transferring some of the original ink to the surface of a clean copper
plate. Three and one-half years later
under the date of June 4, 1823, the National
Intelligencer reported that: “the City Gazette informs us that Mr. Wm.
J. Stone, a respectable and enterprising (sic) engraver of this City has, after
a labor of three years, completed a facsimile of the Original of the Declaration
of Independence, now in the archives of the government, that it is executed with
the greatest exactness and fidelity; and that the Department of State has become
the purchaser of the plate…The facility of multiplying copies of it, now
possessed by the Department of State will render furthur (sic) exposure of the
original unnecessary.” On
May 26, 1824, a resolution by the Senate and House of Representatives provided: “That
two hundred copies of the Declaration, now in the Department of State, be
distributed in the manner following: two copies to each of the surviving Signers
of the Declaration of Independence (John
Adams, Thomas
Jefferson, Charles
Carroll of Carrollton); two copies to the President of the United States (Monroe);
two copies to the Vice-President of the United States (Tompkins);
two copies to the late President, Mr.
Madison; two copies to the Marquis
de Lafayette, twenty copies for the two houses of Congress; twelve copies
for the different departments of the Government (State, Treasury, Justice, Navy,
War and Postmaster); two copies for the President’s House; two copies for the
Supreme Court room, one copy to each of the Governors of the States; and one to
each of the Governors of the Territories of the United States; and one copy to
the Council of each Territory; and the remaining copies to the different
Universities and Colleges of the United States, as the President of the United
States may direct.” The 201 official parchment copies struck from
the Stone plate carry the identification "Engraved by W. J. Stone for the
Department of State, by order" in the upper left corner followed by
"of J.
Q. Adams, Sec. of State July 4th 1823." in the upper right corner.
"Unofficial" copies that were struck later do not have the
identification at the top of the document or are the printed on vellum. Instead
the engraver identified his work by engraving "W. J. Stone SC. Washn."
near the lower left corner and burnishing out the earlier identification. Today
31 of the 201 Stone facsimiles printed in 1823 are known to exist. Click
for a High-resolution version of the Stone
engraving
The copper plate was not used again until
seven copies were printed from it for the Bicentennial of the Declaration in
1976. Only
three printings were deemed acceptable.
The 1823 copper plate remains in storage at the National Archives and it
scheduled to be used until the celebration of the Tri-centennial in the year
2076. | ||
