when was the declaration of independence signed

By this time, the document was really showing its age, with one writer calling it “old and yellow.” “All of the movements and attempts to display it over the decades took a significant toll on the ink,” Sneff says.īecause of concern over its condition, the State Department took down the Declaration of Independence in the 1890s and locked it away in a steel safe. Though considered flameproof, the declaration’s new living quarters contained an open fireplace and allowed for smoking, according to the National Archives. She adds that “it was displayed at different times both vertically and horizontally.” buildings, most notably the old Patent Office (now the National Portrait Gallery), where it was exposed to “high light levels and extreme temperature and humidity fluctuations,” says Amy Lubick, senior conservator at the National Archives. The ”signed parchment” declaration again bounced around various D.C. There, they remained safe at a private dwelling until returning to D.C.

Just prior to the city going up in flames, State Department clerk Stephen Pleasonton, who later claimed to have acted against the advice of the secretary of war, stuffed the declaration and other important documents in linen bags and whisked them off to Leesburg, Virginia. Under the custody of the State Department, the parchment was housed in various government buildings until the closing stages of the War of 1812, when British soldiers marched on Washington, D.C. There’s even a mysterious faint handprint on the parchment’s lower left side. As the National Archives points out, it was probably rolled and unrolled many times during its years on the road, thereby starting a process in which it gradually became more creased, stained, ripped and faded. The Declaration of Independence Hits the Roadįollowing a fourth stop in Philly from 1790 to 1800, the Declaration of Independence was taken by boat to Washington, D.C., the newly-built capital, where it has remained for all but a few years ever since. Starting with John Hancock, 56 delegates, including a couple who opposed independence and others who missed the vote, then put their signatures on the document.

The scribe for this job is believed to have been Timothy Matlack, an assistant to the secretary of the Congress, who completed the task by August 2. For a more official, formal version, the Continental Congress ordered on July 19 that the declaration be “fairly engrossed on parchment”-meaning it was to be painstakingly and ornately handwritten on animal skin-and signed by each delegate. Joe Sohm/Visions of America / Contributor via Getty Imagesīut although the Dunlap broadside constituted the first public version of the declaration, it used simple type and didn’t include the names of the congressional delegates who had approved it. Realizing that knowledge of the persons and character of America’s Founding Fathers will go a long way to answer the secular and Deconstructive attacks against the Christian foundation of America, we undertake the effort to present thumbnail sketches of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.Replica of a printing press used by John Dunlap to make broadside copies of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, on display at the Newseum, Washington, D.C. The information and materials that appear below are part of a larger project here at Christian Heritage Fellowship. To purchase a limited quantity of this publication, please click: Purchase here.Ĭontrary to the assertions of contemporary Deconstructionism that America was birthed from the womb of secularism, the facts clearly indicate that America’s Founding Fathers were deeply influenced by the principles of the Bible and the Christian Faith when laying the foundation of American law-which was true for both the states and federal government. Christian Heritage Fellowship would be honored to work with individuals, businesses, churches, institutions, or organizations to help communicate the truth concerning the positive influence of the Christian faith by providing bulk pricing: Please contact us here. The subject addressed in this article is discussed at greater length in American Matriarchs.

When was the declaration of independence signed