In a press release, the Museum of the American Revolution announced that a rare 1823 engraved printing of the Declaration of Independence, along with two significant and related letters from John Hancock (1776) and John Quincy Adams (1832), are now on view at the Museum through October 2023.
The engraved printing of the Declaration belonged to the last surviving signer, Charles Carroll who signed the engraving on August 2, 1826, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original signing of the Declaration of Independence. According to the Museum of the American Revolution, the print was engraved by William J. Stone. In 1820, to preserve the original document, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams hired Stone to create a duplicate. It took three years for Stone to make the engraving, the entire time the original Declaration sat in his print shop. All subsequent copies of the Declaration from then on were made from Stone’s engravings.
The 1823 William Stone printing of the Declaration of Independence and letters from John Hancock and John Quincy Adams are on loan from DOI Holdings, LLC. The documents were purchased by the Norcross family in 2021.
For further details, please read the Museum of the American Revolution’s press release.