Two hundred and thirty six years ago our nation's founders were hard at work printing copies of the latest move by the continental congress, declaring the United States' freedom from British rule. Now one of those copies is on display at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Declaration: Birth of a Nation features a collection of historic documents dating back to the birth of our nation, including a copy of the Declaration of Independence
"I got chills looking at it, thinking this is two hundred and fifty years old," Cynthia Litwer says after viewing the exhibit.
"Jefferson and franklin were standing there while this document was printing," says the museum's director of curatorial David Houston. "As you sit there and read the words of the original thing, it's just hard not to feel this intensity of feeling swelling up."
The centerpiece on display is just one of 200 original copies of the Declaration of Independence, printed just hours after approval by the continental congress.
"The urgency, there is a sense of urgency that they must have felt the same night going to a printer," Litwer says.
It isn't the presentation copy with John Hancock's prominent signature, but Houston, says it is an equally important piece of history, read aloud across the thirteen colonies to spread the word.
"Big ideas, and this was the envelope in which they were presented in their own time," Houston says. "The official showpiece is the parchment copy but the first and the incendiary copies that got the information out was the version that we have here."
Houston says only twenty six copies are known to exist, and just two are in private hands.
"(They are) very valued and very cherished, so this is a very rare opportunity to have a document like this here," he says. "When you're in the room these documents just reek of authenticity."
The exhibition is free and will run until September 17.
Declaration: Birth of a Nation features a collection of historic documents dating back to the birth of our nation, including a copy of the Declaration of Independence
"I got chills looking at it, thinking this is two hundred and fifty years old," Cynthia Litwer says after viewing the exhibit.
"Jefferson and franklin were standing there while this document was printing," says the museum's director of curatorial David Houston. "As you sit there and read the words of the original thing, it's just hard not to feel this intensity of feeling swelling up."
The centerpiece on display is just one of 200 original copies of the Declaration of Independence, printed just hours after approval by the continental congress.
"The urgency, there is a sense of urgency that they must have felt the same night going to a printer," Litwer says.
It isn't the presentation copy with John Hancock's prominent signature, but Houston, says it is an equally important piece of history, read aloud across the thirteen colonies to spread the word.
"Big ideas, and this was the envelope in which they were presented in their own time," Houston says. "The official showpiece is the parchment copy but the first and the incendiary copies that got the information out was the version that we have here."
Houston says only twenty six copies are known to exist, and just two are in private hands.
"(They are) very valued and very cherished, so this is a very rare opportunity to have a document like this here," he says. "When you're in the room these documents just reek of authenticity."
The exhibition is free and will run until September 17.
