when was the declaration of independence signed

#When was the declaration of independence signed free#

#When was the declaration of independence signed free#

Ross died in 1779, before the Revolutionary War was over.īenjamin Rush, a Philadelphia physician who went on to found a free hospital in the city and to help found Dickinson College in Carlisle. George Ross, a lawyer who lived for a time in Lancaster and served Pennsylvania and the Continental Congress in several capacities. John Morton, a Chester County farmer and surveyor who played a pivotal role in affirming Pennsylvania’s endorsement of the Declaration. A book about him calls Morris the “financier of the American Revolution.” And yes, the university in Moon Township is named for him, though he had nothing to do with its founding. Morris originally opposed the Declaration, but didn’t stand in its way and went on to organize the finances of the Revolutionary government. Robert Morris, another Philadelphia businessman whose deep pockets were critical to the success of the Continental Army. Indiana, Pa., sits on land granted by Clymer. George Clymer, a Philadelphia businessman who helped organize and finance the Continental Congress and Army. One, of course, is Benjamin Franklin, perhaps our commonwealth’s most preeminent statesman, journalist, inventor and entrepreneur.Ĭan you name the others? I certainly couldn’t until I decided to look it up this week. Nine Pennsylvania citizens signed the declaration.

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, the annual celebration of the seminal moment in our nation’s founding.Īs Pennsylvanians, we can take pride that the Declaration of Independence - a fiery missive for the ages - was written and approved in Philadelphia. Now, it’s time to find better ways to interact with you and ensure we meet your high standards of what a credible media organization should be. opened in the Patent Office Building (now the National Portrait Gallery), and what better thing to display than the Declaration of Independence? It sounded like a smart idea, but over the course of 35 years on display, the document was exposed to damaging light that further faded what little ink remained.The days of journalism’s one-way street of simply producing stories for the public have long been over. In 1841, the first exhibition hall in Washington D.C. This removed some ink and accounts for some of the faded look we see today, especially around the signatures. Step one of this involved pressing wet fabric against the ink to transfer an exact copy of the words onto the plate. It was a good idea, but the method of the day involved engraving the image on a copperplate. The resulting copperplate is dated July 4, 1823. While Secretary of State, future president John Quincy Adams commissioned full-sized copies of the Declaration to be made to limit the exposure of the original. Restorers with the best of intentions can still do plenty of harm, and early efforts to protect the Declaration damaged the document further. The National Archives Good Intentions, Terrible Results “Two primary vertical fold lines run from top to bottom, and there are numerous horizontal fold lines especially in the lower part of the document.” “Evidence of previous folding and rolling is still visible on the Declaration,” says one National Archives analysis.

As you can imagine, this rough treatment led to permanent damage. The document had no permanent home during the earliest days of the Revolutionary War, resulting in crude folding and rolling, causing some of the ink to flake off. Over time, that dark color mellows to a soft brown.īut the current custodians of the document-the National Archives-will tell you that almost no original ink remains on the Declaration of Independence. “This powder would make for a perfect traveling ink, created only as needed to avoid the opportunity for mold growth.” The scribe would etch letters that would gradually darken as oxygen works on the iron. “The ingredients could also be mixed dry, which would produce ink the moment water was added to it,” the website continues. Ground gall nuts, taken from an oak-like tree, were boiled to draw out tannic acid, which was mixed with iron sulfate scraped from nails.