Contact Information (press inquiries only) The New York Public Library Public Relations Office 188 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 phone: 212.592.7700 fax: 212.592.7729 
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The New York Public Library Celebrates the 4th of July
with Display of the Declaration of Independence On View June 27 through August 2; closed July 4 and 5
On June 11, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, appointed a committee of five men to draft a Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson assumed the role of primary author while the other members of the committee, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, made only minor suggestions. In a letter to George Washington dated June 21, 1776, Franklin indicates that illness has kept him from Congress, writing, “I know little of what has pass’d there, except that a Declaration of Independence is preparing.” Forwarded to Congress on July 1, the Declaration was ratified on July 4, after a number of changes had been made. Jefferson was distressed by these alterations, most notably the removal of his lengthy condemnation of slavery. In the days immediately following July 4, he made several copies for friends of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. Besides the Library’s copy on view in the exhibition, only one other complete copy and one fragment are known to have survived. The inhabitants of the thirteen Colonies learned about the sea change in their political affairs through public proclamations and the distribution of printed versions of the Declaration of Independence. The Philadelphia printing, exhibited at the Library, was issued by Congress on July 5 and is the first of all the various printed versions. All official pronouncements, even the formal Charter of Freedom housed in the National Archives, were copied from this broadside. This is one of only twenty-five extant copies. Also displayed will be one of the two or three surviving copies of the first New York printing issued after July 9, 1776. Many people learned of the Declaration from their local newspapers. The display includes three of the earliest newspaper printings drawn from the Library’s collection of early American newspapers. Rounding out the display is a copy of the first broadside printing with the signers’ names, commissioned by Congress six months after independence had been proclaimed. This copy is authenticated by autograph signatures: John Hancock signs as President of the Congress, and Charles Thomas, the Secretary, attests the official nature of the document. It is also significant in social history as the work of an early American woman printer, Mary Katherine Goddard. The Declaration of Independence will be on view from June 27 through August 2, 2003 at The New York Public Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library in the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery. Exhibition hours are Tuesday and Wednesday 11 a.m. through 7:30 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays, and national holidays. The Library will be closed July 4 and 5, 2003. Admission is free. For more information about exhibitions at The New York Public Library, the public may call 212.869.8089 or visit the Library’s website at www.nypl.org. Special thanks to Delta Air Lines for its support.
### Contact: Tina Hoerenz, Herb Scher, 212.221.7676
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