A rare printing of the United States Declaration of Independence, discovered in our collections earlier this year, has gone on public display for the first time today.
The ‘Exeter Declaration’ will be added to our exhibition Revolution 250: America’s Independence Story, 1763–1783, as the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence.
Printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, in July 1776, it is one of only 11 known surviving Exeter copies and the only one known to be held outside the United States.
It has gone on display alongside the exhibition’s Dunlap broadside, which was printed by John Dunlap in Philadelphia on the night of 4 July 1776 and was among the first official printings of the Declaration.
The Exeter copy was printed by Robert Luist Fowle between 16 and 19 July 1776, as the Declaration began to circulate beyond Philadelphia. It is distinguished from the Dunlap broadside by its layout, with the text printed in parallel columns rather than as a single block.
Dr Graham Moore, curator of Revolution 250 at The National Archives, said: ‘This is the first opportunity for the public to see a remarkable document that remained unidentified in our collections for almost 250 years.
‘Displayed alongside the Dunlap broadside printed on 4 July 1776, the Exeter Declaration shows how quickly the words of American independence travelled beyond Philadelphia.
‘Bringing these two exceptionally rare printings together in the 250th anniversary year is an extraordinary moment.’
The document was identified in May by volunteer Michael Scurr while cataloguing Royal Navy captains’ correspondence from the American Revolutionary War.
It was found among papers sent to the Admiralty in London following the capture of the American privateer Dalton by HMS Raisonable on Christmas Eve 1776. One of the seized papers, described at the time simply as ‘another document’, proved to be the rare Exeter printing.