The Declaration of Independence

From June 30, 2006 through August 5, 2006
Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery (First Floor)
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788 (directions)

The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's hand. In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, Jefferson made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. The Library's copy is one of two known to survive intact, a third survivor being fragmentary. It is shown together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore; and a letter from Franklin to Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted.

"We hold these truths ...," a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence, is a 14-minute film that is shown continuously in the South Court Visitors' Theater. Admission is free.