The J. Willard Marriott Library has announced the discovery of a facsimile of the Declaration of Independence located in the Rare Books department of Special Collections. The document is part of Peter Force’s American Archives, which consists of transcribed manuscripts regarding the history of the American colonies.
The facsimile is currently featured as part of the America in the Archives: The Many Voices of Democracy exhibition on the fourth floor of the library.
The printing history of this facsimile involves a connection to the original handwritten Declaration of Independence. In 1820, then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned Washington D.C. engraver William J. Stone to create a facsimile of the engrossed copy. Stone worked on the copperplate engraving for three years and sold it to the State Department in 1823.
Two hundred copies of this engraving were produced on parchment and distributed to official institutions and surviving signers of the Declaration. While the specific method used by Stone to create the engraving remains unknown, one possibility is a wet transfer process where water was used to dampen the original document to imprint ink onto the copperplate.
During the development of American Archives, Peter Force intended to include folded prints of the Declaration in specific volumes. He commissioned Stone to produce these prints from the existing copperplate. In 1848, the Fifth Series, Volume 1 of American Archives was published with the Stone engraving tipped into the text.
These prints, known as the Force printing, were made on semi-translucent paper and folded into the volume. Due to the clarity of the engraving, the facsimile provides a clear view of the document, which is now held in the National Archives.
Todd Samuelson, the associate dean for Special Collections, stated that the discovery is a treasure because this version represents one of the earliest available copies of the Declaration. He noted that because it was created via an immediate transfer from the original, it is more legible than the original and serves as a valuable object for student research.
The exhibition, which explores American stories through archives ranging from pre-colonial artifacts to present-day publications, is scheduled to run until September 9, 2026.
