One of the rarest copies of the Declaration of Independence is coming to Richmond

Ahead of the United States’ 250th birthday, one of the rarest surviving copies of the Declaration of Independence will be on display at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.

The document, which can be viewed from June 7 to July 4, was produced in the 1820s when then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned an official reproduction of the 1776 Declaration, which by then had become so faded and fragile that the museum said “there was concern it would become illegible and lost forever.” 

A meticulous copy of the original engraved by William J. Stone onto copperplate was used to produce 201 parchment copies of the Declaration in 1823. Only 31 are known to survive, according to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.

The museum’s senior director of curatorial affairs, Andrew Talkov, called the Stone engraving “the basis for nearly all modern reproductions of the Declaration.”   

In 2021, one of those parchment Declarations sold at auction for $4.4 million after it was discovered in the attic of a Scottish home. 

The Sweet Briar Declaration is believed to be even rarer. Because it is printed on paper rather than parchment, and because it bears the visible imprint of the copperplate, scholars now say it is likely one of just six test versions created ahead of the parchment run.

The Virginia Museum of History and Culture said it is just one of only two paper copies known to exist. 

According to contemporary coverage by the Associated Press, the Sweet Briar Declaration was donated to the college in 1984 by Rosemary Frey Rogers, an alumnae of the school who said she had discovered it in the bottom of an old chest in her attic. 

Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at svogelsong@richmonder.org