Description:

Declaration of Independence Engraved by W.J. Stone, Reprinted in 1833 from the Original Copperplate, for Peter Force's American Archives 

A very bright, clean copy of Peter Force's 1833 printing of the Declaration of Independence broadside, from the Stone's 1823 plate still bounded into the volume on page 1598 of Peter Force, American Archives: Fifth Series – A Documentary History of the United States of America, 1848, Vol 1. The broadside is super clean with no spotting. The broadside has expected folds and a small tear at the right margin. The cover of Volume 1 has heavy wear throughout; the front board is detached, but present.  Also included is Volume 6 of the fourth series.

In 1820, with the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaching, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and Congress commissioned William J. Stone of Washington to engrave an exact copy of the original Declaration of Independence onto a copperplate. Interest in reproductions of the Declaration had increased as the nation grew. Stone used a new Wet-Ink transfer process to create a copperplate from which facsimile copies could then be made. By wetting the original document, some of the original ink was transferred to the copperplate, which was then used for printing. The signatures of the 56 delegates were to be carefully copied. Stone spent two years perfecting the plate and after he had printed the 200 copies ordered, his original engraved plate remained with the Department of State.

A decade later in 1833, Peter Force (1790-1868), historian, publisher and mayor of Washington D.C., under contract with the Department of State authorized by Act of Congress, planned to compile a vast work in at least 20 volumes, to be known as the "American Archives, a Documentary History of the English Colonies in North America." It would include legislative records, documents, and historic private correspondence. Six volumes were published from 1837-1846 and three more between 1846-1853. The nine volumes covered the years 1774-1776. Congress agreed to fund an edition of 1,500 sets. For the project, Force arranged with the State Department to print 4,000 copies of the Declaration, from Stone's original copperplate. Stone's imprint was neatly burnished out at the top of the plate and a discreet "W.J. STONE SC WASHN." added in the lower left. After mounting expenses and increasing production delays, by 1843, when Force received Congressional re-authorization for Series IV, he had scaled back his subscription plan to 500 copies. The volumes into which the Declarations were placed did not appear for several more years. After the project was canceled in 1853, Force sold his enormous collection of original documents to the Library of Congress for $100,000.

Despite Quincy Adams’s intentions, the engrossed Declaration manuscript continued to be mistreated. Displayed in direct sunlight for more than 30 years, disastrously faulty conservation work, and other insults have irreparably damaged the original; about 90% is completely illegible today. Therefore, the Stone/Force printings are the best representation of the Declaration as it was when members of the Continental Congress put their lives on the line to sign the manuscript in August of 1776.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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