Posted on 01/21/2007 5:28:38 PM PST by Vote 4 Nixon
ATLANTA - An archivist was going through historical records at the state archives when he came across a forgotten piece of history.
Gregory Jarrell was looking at microfilm Wednesday when the date, "March 2, 1777" jumped out at him. He went to the vault and pulled out the bound volume that had the original document.
Jarrell had found what archivists think is Georgia's only official recording of the Declaration of Independence.
State Archives Director David Carmicheal said the handwritten document was probably recorded by a scribe or clerk after Congress dispatched a copy of the original document from Philadelphia to the nation's 13 original states.
Carmicheal said 12 other such documents might exist in the other states.
"This is our copy of the declaration," he said.
The document survived the Revolutionary War and the Civil War in the next century. Carmicheal said it has probably sat, unnoticed, in the state archives since the agency was formed in 1918.
State archivists will conduct further investigation of the document, looking for clues in the ink, paper, handwriting techniques and even the water marks on the pages in order to authenticate a time period and possibly establish exactly where it was written. The document was most likely recorded in Savannah or in encampments nearby in the midst of chaos.
Carmicheal said, unlike the 200 to 500 copies of the Declaration of Independence that were made in the printing shop of John Dunlap right after its adoption by Congress in 1776, the Georgia document is an original.
"The Dunlap Broadside is a beautiful document but it was not an official document," Carmicheal said. "This is an official record."
The names of all 56 signatories - including Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall and George Walton from Georgia - appear on the document, though they are
(Excerpt) Read more at macon.com ...
Wow! Cool.
Thankfully it was discovered by an honest person, rather than someone like sandy burglar...
Lyman Hall is my far distant relative signer of the declaration.
All three GA signers have counties named after them. A deserving honor.
Ot someone like me. I may morph into Sandy if a Decl of Ind passed through my hands. That's some tempting history!
I'll bet they mention God in their Declaration.
The Declaration announced to England and the world that, based on God given rights, free men were forming a new political entity upon these shores.
Then hard men with rifles made it come true.
Semper Fi,
Well it's long past time to send a copy to the UN.
Did anybody look on the back side?
Apropos to absolutley nothing, I have the only known copy of Shoeless Joe Jackson's 1919 contract with the White Sox (the year of the Black Sox scandal). Do ya think it's worth anything?
YES, I do!
No. Do you?
I don't know. It's an interesting document though. They were paid practically nothing and they had to buy their own uniforms!
Dunlap's shop is still in business in Philadelphia after becoming part of Smith Edwards and Dunlap. You'd think maybe Ben Franklin would have had the inside track on that print job.
Throw it out. Nobody pays any attention to it anymore. Its worth about as much as the Bill of RIghts.
They need to get the lemons and a hair dryer first.
Actually, I think it is cool. This is an historic original, a document that led to an event of historic proportions, second only to the Bible.
Of course I agree with you on that. It's very cool.
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