Voters in the United States of America went to the polls last week.

They picked a President - for the 47th time.

And many senatorial seats, congress memberships, governor’s mansions and other posts changed hands too.

The world watched.

Since its foundation as an independent state the US has shone as a beacon - or something worse - around the world.

And collectors want to celebrate that history.

The most obvious way to do so is with the Founding Documents of the United States.

A Declaration takes centre stage at an auction sale this year. Image courtesy of Sotheby's.

These historic landmarks are well worth studying in their own right.

And, in some cases they’re very nearly priceless.

What are they, and how can you get them into your collection?

What are the founding documents of the United States of America?

Most sources give us three founding documents.

The Declaration of Indepencence,
The Constitution, and
The Bill of Rights.

The Articles of Confederation might be added to that list.

The first of the first though is the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 men on July 4, 1776 at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia.

In signing and adopting the declaration the Continental Congress of the 13 American states formalised the causes of the war against British rule that had already been raging since April the previous year.

They also set out some of what they wanted their new nation to embody, perhaps most most famously in the phrase: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The document was mostly the work of Thomas Jefferson, who worked in a committee of five alongside John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman.

It was then edited by the Congress and after ratification was printed and circulated as widely as possible in the US.

This process means that quite a large number of copies in various forms were produced.

First were drafts of the document.

There are two of these in Jefferson’s hand, one discovered as recently as 1947.

Thomas Jefferson did the bulk of the drafting of the Declaration.

There are also a number of copies that Jefferson sent to friends and colleagues. John Adams wrote out a copy.

Jefferson recalled producing a “fair copy” that is now lost.

This copy was probably used by congress during their contribution to the drafting process, and signed as the first official copy.

This is what would have been sent to printer John Dunlap to produce “A Declaration by the Representatives of the united states of america, in General Congress assembled".

Printing was important to the American Revolution and was used to distribute ideas widely.

One of Dunlap’s prints (there are about 200 and they’re called broadsides) was used as an Official Version in Congress.

Copies were sent out to the 13 states to get their approval.

And at this stage lots of reprints are done around the new country.

How many of the Dunlap Broadsides survive is not known exactly.

In 1949, 14 were known. Seven more had been discovered by 1975. There are 26 known copies now.

The majority are in institutional library or archive collections, though a handful are privately owned and could be sold.

The most recent sale I can find a record for took place in 1991, when the “roving copy” was auctioned for over $8 million.

A second printing in January 1777 listed the signers (with the exception of Thomas McKean). Mary Katherine Goddard printed these, also in broadside style.

There were nine known copies of the Goddard Broadside in 1949 all in library collections.

As the Dunlap broadsides were circulated they were used as the basis for more copies.

A 1949 survey found 71 copies of 17 further editions of the declaration made in this way.

Others have subsequently been found.

The Engrossed copies

After Congress had passed the Declaration on July 4 they passed a resolution to “engross” the document on parchment to be signed.

It was titled: “The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America”.

Written out by a clerk called Matlack, this copy travelled with an under-siege and on-the-run rebel government until 1789, when it found a more permanent home with the office of the secretary of state.

It has been subsequently moved or hidden when America is under attack, first in 1812, when British troops famously burned down the White House.

It was put in Fort Knox during World War II.

It’s not in very good condition and was seen to be fading as early as 1820.

At that point, a printed facsimile was attempted, and William J Stone was asked to print it. He completed the work by 1823. 

The Stone printing was a complex engraving designed to look hand-written. It is the copy that is most visually fixed in the public's imagination. 

His 200 copy run is another stage in the document’s story.

Only 48 of Stone’s document are now known to exist.

If you see the Declaration on a tea towel or jigsaw puzzle or poster, it’s probably a representation of the Stone copy.

The original Engrossed copy has now been given the most up-to-date conservation and storage technology, been transferred to the National Archives and is on display there.

A second copy was found in West Sussex Records Office in the UK in 2017.

It’s probably a hand-written copy of the Congress’s Engrossed copy.

The value of the Declaration of Independence

Many copies of the Declaration are in academic, museum, or archive collections around the States. Or still with the political instututions that drafted or signed them.

But not all.

And by no means all are accounted for.

It’s absolutely possible that more will be found.

Those that are in private hands and that come to auction are extremely valuable.

If any new ones are found they will still be extremely rare and very valuable.

Recent sales include a 2021 auction of a Stone printing for $4.42 million.

That was against an $800,000 estimate and quadrupled the record for a Stone printing that was set in New York in 2019.

Earlier this year, an early printing realised $3.36 million at auction. It was one of the first newspaper printings.

Buying rare historic documents now

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And you can see some of the wonderful historic documents we have here.

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