Rare copy of United States Declaration of Independence found in Kew
July 3, 2009
The document, which is in perfect condition, is believed to be one of only 200 ever printed and was found among files at the National Archives in Kew in Richmond, Surrey.
Stumbled upon by an American antiquarian bookseller carrying out research, the Dunlap print of the declaration was printed on July 4, 1776 and brings the total of known surviving copies worldwide to 26.
The last discovery of a Dunlap print was at a flea market in 1989, and it sold at auction in 2000 for 8.14 million US dollars.
Dunlaps were the first official printings of the Declaration of Independence and were named after John Dunlap, the printer whose name is given at the bottom of each copy.
This manuscript was hidden among correspondence from American colonists that had been intercepted by the British in the 18th century.
The finding of the poster-size document brings the number of copies held at the National Archives to three, and despite its value, Mel Hide, a spokeswoman from the National Archives said they will not be selling the print.
She said: "We will protect and preserve this copy. It is unlikely to go on display because we already have one on show at the Archive's museum."
But she did not rule out a trip across the Atlantic Ocean for the manuscript.
"The Americans are very excited by it. We do often loan out our key documents and I'm sure if an American institution wanted to borrow it, we would consider lending it to them."
Edward Hampshire, the diplomatic and colonial specialist at the National Archives, said: "This is an incredibly exciting find. The Declaration of Independence is effectively America's birth certificate, making it one of the seminal documents in world history.
"It is likely that only around 200 of these were ever printed, so uncovering a new one nearly 250 years later is extremely rare, especially one in such good condition."
The United States Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.
Prints made by John Dunlap were delivered to the founders early on the morning of July 5, 1776.
One copy was officially entered into the Congressional Journal and the additional copies were distributed, some by horseback, throughout the colonies to be read aloud to colonists and the militia.