Peter Force, ca.1833

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE – In Congress, July 4, 1776. The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America. When in the Course of Human Events... [Washington,] engraved by W.J. Stone (1823-1825), reprinted 1833 from the original copperplate, for Peter Force's American Archives (1837-1853) [traditionally mis-dated 1848].

A bright copy of Peter Force's 1833 printing of the Declaration of Independence, from W.J. Stone's 1823 plate. In 1823, with the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaching, Congress commissioned Stone to produce a high-quality, actual-size replica of the original engrossed Declaration. The signatures of the 56 delegates were to be carefully copied. Stone spent two years perfecting the plate and after he had printed the 200 copies ordered, his original engraved plate remained with the Department of State. A decade later, Peter Force (1790-1868), historian, publisher and mayor of Washington D.C., conceived a massive 20-volume anthology entitled American Archives, containing copies of key letters, documents, and broadsides from the Revolutionary War. Congress agreed to fund an edition of 1,500 sets. For the project, Force arranged with the State Department to print 4,000 copies of the Declaration, from Stone's original copperplate, on fine, wove paper. Stone's imprint was neatly burnished out at the top of the plate and a discreet "W.J. STONE SC[ULPSIT] WASHN." added in the lower left quadrant.

Folio broadside (733 x 642mm). (Expected offsetting, small tears at fold intersections, clean 65mm tear at left margin.) Remaining bound to a gathering excised from Peter Force, American Archives: Fifth Series – A Documentary History of the United Sates of America... Washington: [Government Printing Office], 1848, Vol 1. (Partly disbound, lacking front board).