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With the approval of Congress, Adams commissioned William J. Stone to engrave a facsimile—an exact copy—on a copper plate. Stone’s engraving is the best representation of the Declaration as the manuscript looked prior to its nearly complete deterioration. A detail from copper plate created by W.J. Stone.
Nov 16, 2022 · The image familiar to most Americans is the engraving of the Declaration printed by William J. Stone in 1823. Stone's engraving is the image most illustrated in history books, displayed in schools and libraries, sold as souvenirs, and reproduced countless times.
Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned William J. Stone, a Washington engraver, to produce an official facsimile on copperplate of the Declaration text and signatures for the United States government.
- The First Printing of The Signatures
- The Stone Engraving
- The Force Printing
- Mid-Nineteenth Century Printings
Not until 1818 did an engraver reproduce all of the signatures on the Declaration. A Boston calligrapher named Benjamin Owen Tyler undertook the project. He made no attempt to reproduce the handwriting in the main body of the text. Until Tyler’s effort, the general public had never seen John Hancock’s now-iconic bold signature on the document. The ...
The first complete facsimile printing—text and signatures—was by commissioned by the State Department in 1823. William J. Stone was the engraver. Only 200 copies on vellum were produced, plus a few additional copies on paper. This printing was life-sized, about 30 x 26 inches, and can easily be distinguished by the tiny text in the upper left corne...
Stone’s original engraving plate was then altered slightly to produce rice-paper copies for Peter Force’s American Archives series, with the original engraver’s imprint rubbed out and a similar imprint added in the lower left beneath the signatures reading “W. J. STONE SC. WASHN.” These Force copies were printed from the altered plate by Stone in 1...
These early printings gave imitators something to copy. Dozens of different broadside printings appeared from the 1820s through the 1876 centennial. We have seen them in this era on silk, stamped on metal, reproduced in miniature on white glossy card stock, even with the words arranged calligraphically to form a portrait of George Washington. These...
May 19, 2023 · In 1820, John Quincy Adams, then secretary of state and a future President, commissioned a young printer, William J. Stone, to make a full-size facsimile copperplate engraving of the Declaration of Independence.
Stone Engraving of the Declaration of Independence. Artist/Maker: William J. Stone (1798-1865) Created: 1823. Origin/Purchase: Washington, D.C. Materials: engraving. Dimensions: 85.7 × 69.2 (33 3/4 × 27 1/4 in.) Provenance: Dr. William R. Coleman. Historical Notes: Jefferson kept the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, "scored and ...
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The Stone Engraving In 1823, William J. Stone produced the most accurate reproduction of the engrossed Declaration. The "Stone Declaration" would become the iconic image that Americans recognize from their history books.
