Scope and Content Note
The Declaration of Independence Collection, dating from 1776 to 1942, consists of miscellaneous copies of documents, mostly photostats, relating to the creation of the Declaration of Independence and its Virginia antecedents. Originals are at the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, University of Virginia Library, Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Department of State. Also in the collection are nineteenth and early twentieth-century printed copies of the Declaration of Independence. Of note are photostats of the Virginia Constitution and Declaration of Rights, 1776; photostats of the Resolution for Independence passed by the Continental Congress on June 7, 1776; photostats of Thomas Jefferson's record of debates in the Continental Congress, July 1-12, 1776 (originals in the Thomas Jefferson papers at the Library of Congress); and two copies of William James Stone's facsimile edition of the Declaration of Independence, published for the U.S. Secretary of State in 1823, and one later edition of Stone's facsimile. It is possible that some of these documents were assembled for a 1943 exhibition at the Library of Congress, "Genesis of the Declaration of Independence."