NEWBURYPORT — For a month this summer, visitors to the Custom House Maritime Museum will be able to gaze up a rare 1833 copy of the Declaration of Independence, according to officials at the Water Street institution.
As part of the city’s celebration of the 250th anniversary, the public is invited to see, and read, one of the earliest official reproductions of the Declaration of Independence. Printed in or around 1833 on fine rice paper, it was inserted into Volume I of Peter Force’s monumental “American Archives” documentary series.
The document spearheads the museum’s special exhibition “Ink, Iron & Independence”, which open to members on June 18 and to the public a day later. The print will be on display from June 19 through July 17 when it will be returned to the private collector, according to Julia Bradley, senior manager and director of collections.
Only a few hundred are known to survive today, making these prints both rare and desirable, according to museum officials.
“It is amazing that our museum will have not one but two exquisite examples of the Declaration of Independence. We are extremely grateful to the private collector who graciously agreed to loan us this rare artifact for the occasion of our 250th birthday” Custom House Board Chairman Bob Cronin said.
The second example is an extremely rare textile with the Declaration printed on it in 1820, and which was recently purchased by the Custom House.
“In addition to these presentations, a portrait of George Washington by 19th century artist Jane Stuart will be displayed alongside other artifacts that link Washington and (John) Hancock to Newburyport. The Washington portrait is on loan from the Newburyport Public Library, along with a fine painting of Nathaniel Tracy” James Russell, the museum’s executive director said.
Then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, who earlier studied law with Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport, commissioned engraver William J. Stone to create an exact, full-size facsimile of the Declaration of Independence.
He was concerned because the original 1776 Declaration was already suffering from fading and deterioration, and the 50th anniversary was approaching. The signatures of the 56 delegates were carefully copied. Stone spent two years perfecting the plate and after he had printed the 200 copies ordered, his original engraved plate remained with the Department of State.
A decade later, Peter Force — historian, publisher and mayor of Washington D.C. — conceived a massive 20-volume anthology entitled “American Archives,” containing copies of key letters, documents, and broadsides from the Revolutionary War. Congress agreed to fund an edition of 1,500 sets, but sales were disappointing and only 500 to 1,000 copies were printed, according to museum officials.
The city’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday is being organized by several municipal entities, businesses and organizations including the Museum of Old Newbury, the Custom House Maritime Museum, Lowell’s Boat Shop, the First Religious Society, Theater in the Open, the city of Newburyport, the Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce and many more.
These community partners will present Newburyport 250 Declaration of Independence Day: The Die Is Cast on Sunday, July 19, starting at 1:30 pm with a procession to Market Square, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Newburyport.
This event is sponsored in part by the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism (MOTT) as part of the statewide MA250 campaign. A public commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Newburyport’s first reading of the Declaration of Independence, with community readings, Revolutionary soldiers, sailors, and colonial-era townspeople, ceremonial music and salutes, the arrival of two schooners honored by privateers on board, and with public access to the schooners until 5:30 p.m., plus activities for families on the Custom House lawn.
Dave Rogers is the editor of the Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008.