On View in 2026
The book tour for When the Declaration of Independence Was News has given me the opportunity to see many different exhibits and special displays for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration. With the Fourth of July fast approaching, here is a roundup of some of the museums, libraries, and historical societies where you can see early handwritten and printed copies of the Declaration of Independence.
Major Exhibitions
Museum of the American Revolution
Philadelphia, PA
On view in The Declaration’s Journey:
John Dunlap broadside (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia, PA), July 6, 1776
Steiner and Cist broadside in German (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
Gill, Powars, and Willis broadside (Boston, MA), 1776
Mary Katharine Goddard broadside (Baltimore, MD), 1777
On view in the core galleries:
John Holt broadside (New York, NY), 1776
Ezekiel Russell broadside (Salem, MA), 1776
Boston Public Library
Boston, MA
Declarations: Printing a New Nation
View the virtual exhibition
Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia, PA), July 6, 1776
New-England Chronicle (Boston, MA), July 18, 1776
Gill, Powars, and Willis broadside (Boston, MA), 1776
Thomas and Samuel Green broadside (New Haven, CT), 1776 – only known copy of this printing
Ezekiel Russell broadside (Salem, MA), 1776
Mary Katharine Goddard broadside (Baltimore, MD), 1777
Massachusetts Historical Society
Boston, MA
1776: Declaring Independence
John Adams, fair copy of the draft Declaration, 1776
Thomas Jefferson, fair copy of the draft Declaration, 1776
John Dunlap broadside (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
Continental Journal (Boston, MA), July 18, 1776
Ezekiel Russell broadside with portraits (Salem, MA), 1776 – only known copy of this printing
Mary Katharine Goddard broadside (Baltimore, MD), 1777
Declarations Trail
This multi-institution initiative in the Boston area includes the BPL and MHS along with Imagined Nation: America at 250 at the Boston Athenaeum, War of Words: A Citizen’s-Eye View of the Revolution at Houghton Library at Harvard University, and other exhibitions with historical documents contextualizing the Declaration of Independence.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA
Declaring Independence: The Origin and Influence of America’s Founding Document
View the virtual exhibition
John Dunlap broadside (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia, PA), July 6, 1776
New Hampshire Gazette (Exeter, NH), July 16, 1776
Ezekiel Russell broadside (Salem, MA), 1776
American Philosophical Society
Philadelphia, PA
These Truths: The Declarations of Independence
Thomas Jefferson, fair copy of the draft Declaration, 1776
John Dunlap broadside (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
John Dunlap broadside on vellum (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia, PA), July 6, 1776
Pennsylvania Journal (Philadelphia, PA), July 10, 1776
Other Exhibitions
American Museum and Gardens
Bath, England
On view: John Dunlap broadside (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
Colonial Williamsburg
Williamsburg, VA
On view: Dixon and Hunter’s Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, VA), July 20, 1776
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
Paths to Independence, 1765–1787
On view: John Dunlap “proof” broadside (Philadelphia, PA), 1776 – only known copy of this printing
Historic Trappe
Trappe, PA
Window to Revolution: Pennsylvania Germans and the War for Independence
On view: Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (Philadelphia, PA), July 8, 1776
Huntington Library
San Marino, CA
This Land Is…
On view:
John Holt broadside (New York, NY), 1776
Ezekiel Russell broadside (Salem, MA), 1776
John Carter Brown Library
Providence, RI
1776 Across the Americas
View the virtual exhibition
On view: Gill, Powars, and Willis broadside (Boston, MA), 1776
Lilly Library, Indiana University
Bloomington, IN
The Declaration of Independence: The Motives, the Moment
On view: John Dunlap broadside (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
National Archives
Washington, DC
Free and Independent: A Celebration of the Declaration
On view: John Dunlap broadside (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
Plus, the signed parchment is on view in the rotunda!
National Archives
London, England
Revolution 250: America’s Independence Story, 1763–1783
On view: John Dunlap broadside (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
New York Public Library
New York, NY
Declaring America: 1776 and Beyond
On view: Mary Katharine Goddard broadside (Baltimore, MD), 177
Plus, one of Thomas Jefferson’s fair copies of the draft Declaration is temporarily on view
Newport Historical Society
Newport, RI
Occupied!: Newport and the Fight for Independence
On view: Newport Mercury (Newport, RI), July 18, 1776
Peabody Essex Museum
Salem, MA
Pressing Importance: Salem and the Declaration of Independence
On view:
Ezekiel Russell broadside (Salem, MA)
Ezekiel Russell/John Rogers four-column broadside (Salem, MA)
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
Nursery of Rebellion: Princeton and the American Revolution
View the virtual exhibition
On view: John Dunlap broadside (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
South Street Seaport Museum
New York, NY
The Promise of Liberty: Words That Shaped a Nation
On view: Ezekiel Russell/John Rogers four-column broadside (Salem, MA), 1776
Washington University
St. Louis, MO
Unalienable Rights: 250 Years of the Declaration of Independence
On view: Solomon Southwick broadside (Newport, RI), 1776
On Tour
Maine
On tour: Maine Historical Society’s John Dunlap broadside (Philadelphia, PA), 1776
Destinations include: Portland, Bath, Boothbay, Kennebunk, Camden, Belfast, Bar Harbor, Eastport, Dover-Foxcroft, Presque Isle, Bangor, Skowhegan, Farmington, Norway, Lewiston, Augusta, and Brunswick
Rhode Island
On tour: Rhode Island Department of State’s early printings
Destinations include: Bristol, Providence, Newport, Woonsocket, and Newport
