Early America
Articles of Confederation
A constitution providing for a federation of states, approved by the delegates in 1777.
Gallery
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation, a constitution providing for a loose federation of the states, was approved by the delegates on November 15, 1777.
This printing of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina and Georgia was printed in New London, Connecticut by Timothy Green in 1784. The size measures 11 3/4 x 7 inches and it contains 3 leaves disbound.
The Articles of Confederation provided for a loose federation of the states, drafted and approved by the delegates meeting in York-Town (now Lancaster) on November 15, 1777. It required unanimous ratification by the 13 states, therefore it went into effect in March 1781 after the last state, Maryland, ratified. Its inception marked the end of the Continental Congress; it would remain in effect in many ways for seven years, until superceded by the Constitution of 1788. This printing constitutes “the final draft printing of the Articles, executed for the use of the Continental Congress. This version, with ‘sundry small amendments in the diction, without altering the sense’ was agreed to on Nov 15, 1777. The first edition subsequent to approval was printed at Lancaster by Francis Bailey shortly after.” These articles are one of the great American founding documents.
Declaration of Independence
Foundational to the story of the unfolding American experiment and its future path West.
GalleryDeclaration of Independence
An early printing of one of the most significant American documents, foundational to the story of the unfolding of the American experiment and its future path West.
This attractive early printing of the Declaration Of Independence, engraved by William Stone and published by Peter Force, is a most desirable and scarce facsimile of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence, the foundation document of the United States, has been printed numerous times since the original in 1776. At first as broadsides, then as an essential addition to any volume of laws, it was from the beginning a basic work in the American canon. The present document is one of the earliest broadside editions of the Declaration, done within a few years of the first broadside republications.
In the period following the War of 1812, Americans began to reflect on the era of the country’s founding. The republic was now forty years old, and the generation that had participated in the Revolution, including the signers of the Declaration, were passing away. With nostalgia and curiosity, Americans began to examine the details of the nation’s origins, leading to the publication of previously unavailable documents such as the debates of the Constitutional Convention. Amidst this growing historical interest, it seemed remarkable that while the text of the Declaration was central to the national consciousness, the original document remained largely unknown. Several entrepreneurs set out to address this gap by creating exact copies, often enhanced with calligraphic text, portraits, or decorative flourishes. The most accurate of these early reproductions was an official facsimile, sponsored by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and created by William J. Stone in 1823. Stone used a wet transfer process to make an exact facsimile of the Declaration (then kept in the State Department), printed actual-size on parchment. Bidwell calls this facsimile “a magnificent replica.” Stone spent two years perfecting the plate, and after producing 200 copies, the original plate was retained by the Department of State. A decade later, Peter Force, a historian, publisher, and mayor of Washington D.C., conceived a massive anthology titled American Archives. For this project, Force arranged with the State Department to print 4,000 additional copies of the Declaration from Stones original copperplate. Only one change was made to Stone’s copperplate: his original imprint along the top edge was burnished away and replaced with “W.J. STONE SC. WASHn.”, below the signatures of the Georgia delegates at bottom left. This example is one of those 4000 printings of which only 200-300 are believed to still exist.
