Sold – Declaration of Independence – Force Printing
A Force printing of the Declaration, taken from the original plate.
By 1820 the condition of the only signed Declaration of Independence was rapidly deteriorating. In that year John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, commissioned William J. Stone of Washington to create exact copies of the Declaration using a "new" Wet-Ink Transfer process. Unfortunately this Wet-Ink Transfer greatly contributed to the degradation...
By 1820 the condition of the only signed Declaration of Independence was rapidly deteriorating. In that year John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, commissioned William J. Stone of Washington to create exact copies of the Declaration using a "new" Wet-Ink Transfer process. Unfortunately this Wet-Ink Transfer greatly contributed to the degradation of the only engrossed and signed Declaration of Independence ever produced.
The Wet-Ink Transfer Process called for the surface of the Declaration to be moistened transferring some of the original ink to the surface of a clean copper plate. Three and one-half years later under the date of June 4, 1823, the National Intelligencer reported that:
“The City Gazette informs us that Mr. Wm. J. Stone, a respectable and enterprising (sic) engraver of this City has, after a labor of three years, completed a facsimile of the Original of the Declaration of Independence, now in the archives of the government, that it is executed with the greatest exactness and fidelity; and that the Department of State has become the purchaser of the plate. The facility of multiplying copies of it, now possessed by the Department of State will render furthur (sic) exposure of the original unnecessary.”
On May 26, 1824, a resolution by the Senate and House of Representatives provided:
"That two hundred copies of the Declaration, now in the Department of State, be distributed in the manner following: two copies to each of the surviving Signers of the Declaration of Independence (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Carroll of Carrollton); two copies to the President of the United States (Monroe)…. and one copy to the Council of each Territory; and the remaining copies to the different Universities and Colleges of the United States, as the President of the United States may direct.”
In 1848 Congress commissioned Peter Force to prepare a series of books entitled The American Archives. The purpose of this book was to compile the 1774 through 1777 American Archives which also included reproduction of key founding documents of the United States. For that occasion the “Wet Ink” copper plate was removed from storage and altered once again to reflect the 1848 printing. Then, by virtue of an Act of Congress, Peter Force was permitted to print copies on rice paper from the actual “Wet Ink” copper Plate. These documents were then folded and inserted into Volume 1 of The American Archives collection. Of the rice paper printings of 1848-9, it is believed that Force printed between 900 and 1200 copies as the Archival cost limited the number of clients. It is not known precisely how many "rice wet ink transfers" survive. The copy here is the Force printing.
(From Declaration of Independence.org)
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