The Hallowell Initiatives Committee plans to sponsor a public presentation of Hallowell’s original broadside of the Declaration of Independence from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday and Monday, July 3 and July 4, at Hallowell City Hall, 1 Winthrop St.
Hallowell’s original 1776 printed version of the declaration was found in a picture frame in the librarian’s office at Hubbard Free Library after being lost for 200 years, according to a news release from the committee.
Hallowell City Historian Sam Webber, curator of Fort Western Museum in 1976, was contacted by National Geographic magazine, which was trying to locate “broadsides” of the Declaration of Independence. When the declaration was first written, two separate printings were made of the document. Municipalities in the colonies were given these “broadsides.”
Webber had found evidence in 1976 that a copy had been sent to Fort Western, located in Hallowell during this time period.
Hallowell’s copy was one of 250 copies ordered by the State Council of Massachusetts, which included what is now Maine, from a printer in Salem, Massachusetts.
Only 11 copies out of 250 copies are believed to exist today.
Because it is such a rare document, security measures will be provided by the Hallowell Police Department.
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