Page July 1 2011 Volume 13, No. 3 Connecticut State Library Page 1 ConnecticutConnecticut State State Library Library ...Preserving the Past, Informing the Future www.cslib.org Declaration Tours, by State Librarian Kendall Wiggin On May 3, 2011, an original 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence was on display at the Old State House in Hartford as part of the Declaration of Independence Road Trip. This rare copy of the Declaration of Independence (called a Dunlap Broadside) was one of approximately 200 copies printed on the night of July 4, 1776 by printer John Dunlap. As of 1989, only twenty-four copies of the In this Issue… Dunlap Broadsides were known to exist, until a flea market shopper bought a framed painting for four dollars. While inspecting a tear in the painting, the owner discovered a folded Dunlap Broadside behind it. Declaration Tours by Kendall Wiggin This twenty-fifth copy of the Dunlap Broadside was authenticated by Pages 1-3 Sotheby’s and an independent expert. In June 2000, Lyn and Norman Lear purchased the document on Sotheby’s online auction and formed Oldest Book in the the Declaration of Independence Road Trip. Lear and his wife, Lyn, State Library decided that the rare document would not be stowed in a vault or hung by Kendall Wiggin Page 4 on a wall. Connecticut was one of the last states on the ten-year tour. After the tour, the document will go to a new owner who wishes to Historic Probate remain anonymous. Records by Paul Baran, Pages 5-6 As part of the day’s activities, The Old State House organized a panel discussion, Making a Declaration: Revolutionary Ideas, Modern Importance Connecticut Now Has an Annual Book and the Preservation of a Founding Document, moderated by CT-N’s Diane Festival Photos submitted Smith, with Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, State Historian by CSL staff, Pages 7-8 Walter Woodward and State Librarian Kendall Wiggin. New Digital Collection Mr. Wiggin spoke about the importance of original documents and the and Exhibit on 10th connection with the past that these tangible objects provide. Seeing it Anniversary of online is not the same as seeing it in person. Wiggin also spoke about September 11, 2001... Connecticut’s copy of the Declaration of Independence (called a by Allen Ramsey Goddard Broadside) that is housed in the State Library’s Museum of Page 9 Connecticut History. State Library Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Declaration of Independence was Participates in #AskArchivists Day not "signed" on July 4, 1776. That was instead the date that the final by Allen Ramsey draft of the Declaration was approved by the states represented in the Page 9 Second Continental Congress (except New York) and sent to printer John Dunlap for typesetting and printing. Past Summers in Connecticut After the Declaration was approved by New York, an "engrossed copy" by Mark Jones was prepared on parchment by a calligrapher and signed by the Pages 10-13 delegates on and after August 2, 1776. This engrossed copy is the New Ways to Borrow famous version of the Declaration now on display in the National Books by Diane Pizzo Archives. Page 14 continued on next page Connecticut State Library 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106 Vol. 13, No. 3 Page 2 Connecticut State Library Page 2 Declaration Tours, by State Librarian KendallConnecticutConnecticut Wiggin State(continued) State Library Library The Dunlap Broadsides (a broadside or Declaration of Independence to be distributed by the Second Continental occasionally broadsheet is a large sheet of paper printed on one side only and typically Congress and the first to include the names used as a poster to announce some event, of the signatories. proclamation or other matter) were the first In January 1777 Congress decided the published copies of the United States Declaration should be more widely Declaration of Independence, printed on the distributed. Printer Mary Katherine night of July 4, Goddard was 1776, by John commissioned to Dunlap of print a version Philadelphia. containing the text They were signed and names of the in type only by signatories. The Continental printing of the Congress Goddard President John Broadside is Hancock and significant because Secretary Charles this was the first Thomson. Since time the names of New York had the signers was not approved the publicly known. Today, these copies are Declaration of Independence the word known as the Goddard Broadsides. Nine Unanimous does not appear on the Dunlap copies are known to still exist. They are Broadside. They were sent to the states, owned by the Library of Congress, British authorities, and others. It is Connecticut State Library, the Library of the unknown exactly how many broadsides late John W. Garrett, Maryland Hall of were originally printed, but the number is Records, Maryland Historical Society, estimated at about 200. There are only Massachusetts Archives, New York Public twenty-six known copies that survive. Library, the Library Company of Of the twenty-six surviving copies of the Philadelphia, and the Rhode Island State Dunlap Broadside, twenty-one copies Archives. belong to universities (such as Indiana The Connecticut State Library copy was University, Harvard University, Princeton kept folded up in a volume of the Connecticut University, Yale University, two copies at Archives until the 1980s when State Archivist the University of Virginia, and Williams College) historical societies, museums (e.g. Mark Jones came across it and decided to have it put on display. The document was the American Independence Museum in mounted and framed and is now on display Exeter, New Hampshire), public libraries in the Connecticut Collections gallery of and a city hall. The remaining five are in the Museum of Connecticut History. This private hands. copy includes John Hancock’s original The Goddard Broadside was the second signature. The Connecticut State Archives printed version of the United States contains the circular letter that accompanied continued on next page Connecticut State Library 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106 Vol. 13, No. 3 Page 3 Connecticut State Library Page 3 (continued) Declaration Tours, by State Librarian KendallConnecticutConnecticut Wiggin State State Library Library Connecticut’s official (Goddard) copy of the summer of 1765, when William moved to Declaration of Independence. Philadelphia, they operated it themselves, including the editing and publishing of the The letter, signed by John Hancock reads: Providence Gazette from 1766 and the issuing “Gentlemen: of the annual West’s Almanack. Late in 1768 As there is not a more distinguished Event they sold the business and joined William in in the History of America than the Philadelphia. Mary Goddard assisted in the Declaration of Independence-nor any, that, publishing of the Pennsylvania Chronicle until in all Probability, will as much excite the August 1773, when William moved to Attention of future Ages, it is highly proper, Baltimore and she took over sole that the Memory of that Transaction, responsibility for the Philadelphia business. together with the Causes that gave Rise to it, In February 1774 she sold that interest and should be preserved in the careful manner moved to Baltimore, where she soon took that can be devised. over William’s weekly Maryland Journal and I am therefore Commanded by Congress to the Baltimore Advertiser. transmit you the enclosed copy of the Act of From May 1775 Goddard’s role as editor Independence, with the List of the several and publisher was formally acknowledged in Members of Congress subscribed thereto- the paper’s colophon. She maintained the and to request that you will cause, the same newspaper and the printing business through to be put upon Record, that it may the American Revolution. In 1775 she also henceforth form a Part of the Archives of “The Goddard Broadside was the second printed version of the United States Declaration of Independence to be distributed by the Second Continental Congress and the first to include the names of the signatories.” your State, and remain a lasting Testimony became postmaster of Baltimore; she was [of] your Approbation of that necessary and probably the first woman to hold such a important Measure.” position in America. In January 1777 she Mary Katherine Goddard, (born June 16, issued the first printed copy of the 1738, Groton or New London, Connecticut, Declaration of Independence to include the died Aug. 12, 1816, Baltimore, Maryland), signers’ names. Following a quarrel in was an early American printer and publisher January 1784, William displaced his sister who was also probably the first woman as publisher of the Maryland Journal; she postmaster in America. nonetheless managed to issue an almanac in her own name late that year. She continued Goddard grew up in New London, as postmaster until October 1789, when she Connecticut. In 1762 she and her widowed was replaced by a male appointee who could mother moved to Providence, Rhode Island, undertake the travel necessary to supervise where her elder brother William had opened the operations of the postal service through a printing office. Both she and her mother the South. Her removal was widely assisted in the business, and from the protested in Baltimore. Goddard operated a bookstore until 1809 or 1810. Connecticut State Library 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106 Vol. 13, No. 3 Page 4 Connecticut State Library Page 4 The Oldest Book in Print at the ConnecticutStateConnecticut Library State State Library Library by State Librarian Kendall F. Wiggin With so much attention being and later as the only medical given eBooks, I thought it officer on board the U.S.S. would be interesting to find out Acacia. After the War he was what is the oldest printed book one of the first graduates of the in the State Library’s collection.