Few historical documents are as widely known by the general public as the Declaration of Independence. Created in the summer of 1776 and ratified on 4 July of that year, it is the founding document of the United States of America, which outlined the grievances of the Thirteen Colonies with the British government and their justification for independence.
One of the most historically influential documents, less than a hundred contemporary copies of the Declaration exist, with the majority of them owned by institutions such as the Library of Congress. This is why Sotheby’s selling a copy of the Declaration to auction is such a rare event, as it’s a piece of history not often available to private ownership.
This version of the Declaration, called The July 1776 Exeter Broadside, is assumed to have been printed in New Hampshire and has been in private ownership over the last few decades. It was estimated at between US$2-4 million, with it hitting its US$2 million low estimate and selling for that amount during the pre-sale bidding. After fees the buyer will pay a total of US$2.4 million for the lot, making it the thrid most expensive version of the Declaration of Independence ever sold at auction.
Lot 1 | Committee of Five (Authors) and Robert Luist Fowle (Publisher) | The Declaration of Independence: The July 1776 Exeter Broadside
Circa 16 July 1776
49.5 x 39.2 cm
Provenance:
- Goodspeed's, 1964
- Thomas W. Streeter (his sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 19 April 1967), lot 784
- Phillip Sang (his sale, Sotheby's, New York, 26 April 1978, lot 83, miscatalogued as Walsh 14)
- Christie's, New York, 22 April 2021, lot 6
Estimate: US$2,000,000 - 4,000,000
Hammer Price: US$2,000,000
Sold: US$2,400,000
Auction House: Sotheby’s New York
Sale: The Declaration of Independence: The July 1776 Exeter Broadside
Date: 25 January 2025
On 4 July 1776, the final draft of the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Second Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies. It had been drafted over the previous month by the Committee of Five: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston.
By this point, the colonies and Britain had been at war for over a year, with relations between the two having been on the decline since 1763. The Declaration was simply a formalization of the opinions of the colonies’ governments as to why independence from Britain was seen as the only viable option and why they believed Britain had no true governing authority over them.
It was signed in the Pennsylvania State Hall, now Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, with publication carried out by John Dunlap, an early American printer who produced 200 broadsides for distribution.
John Turnball (1756-1843) | Declaration of Independence (1818), 370 x 550 cm | United States Capitol Rotunda, Washington DC
Other printers would create broadsides of the Declaration, including Robert Luist Fowle. Originally, Fowle and his uncle opened a printing business together in New Hampshire, but when the American Revolutionary War broke out in the spring of 1775, the family members had a schism. Fowle’s uncle was firmly anti-British and sided with the revolutionaries, while Robert had more pro-Loyalist leanings, although he kept those private from the public.
At this point, the pair had been based out of New Hampshire’s old state capital in Portsmouth, after the split Robert took one of his uncle’s printing presses and moved to the new state capital in Exeter to set up shop. There Fowle began publishing The New Hampshire Gazette or the Exeter Morning Chronicle, keeping his political opinions to himself as the small town was one of the major sites of anti-British activity within the region.
Because Robert was situated in one of the state capitals, he may have been one of the first to see a copy of the Declaration. As per a 4 July 1776 resolution by the Second Congress, state capitals and assemblies were to be given priority for receiving copies of the Declaration printed by Dunlap.
On 16 July 1776, Robert Fowle began printing broadsides of the Declaration of Independence in a special edition of his paper. In 1777, he was arrested for foraging money, and his business was looted. He escaped and joined other British Loyalists. After the war, he stayed in New Hampshire, moving and establishing a farm, dying in 1802.
The very printing press Robert Luis Fowle used to print this Declaration of Independence, located in the Exeter Historical Society
An 1884 printed ariel view of Exeter New Hampshire
There are believed to be ten copies of the Fowle-produced Declaration of Independence, with two others having been sold at auction in the past. From a technical perspective, the Fowle edition of the Declaration is interesting in a few senses.
The text is laid out in a single column in the original Dunlap printing. While Fowle followed a copy of the Dunlap printing in creating his copy of the Declaration, he opted to use two columns, one of the seven contemporary broadsides of the Declaration to do so. Note that out of the thirteen contemporary printings of the document, one even uses a rare four-column configuration.
Additionally, found in this version of the Declaration are numerous simple changes to language, formatting, grammar, capitalization, and more. An example of this would be how Dunlap chose not to have italics in the title, as the Fowle version does. Additionally, Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thomson’s name is misspelled as “Thompson.”
More important to the story of this specific version of the Dunlap publication of the Declaration was how utilitarian and local it was. The Dunlap version is strictly a government document first, with its circulation to the masses a secondary priority. The Fowle version presents a direct connection between what the Revolutionaries were preaching and the vast public of the Thirteen Colonies.
The original Dunlap printing of the Declaration of Independence. Note the differences in spelling and formatting from the Fowle version
Another important point of this lot is its provenance. Known as the Goodspeed-Streeter-Sang copy of the Fowle Declaration, its two most famous owners are Thomas Winthrop Streeter Sr. (1883-1965) and Phillip Sang (1902-1975). Interestingly, both of their collections, including this lot, were sold by Sotheby’s in 1967 and 1978, respectively.
Streeter was known for being one of the most important collectors of American books and documents. He served as the President of the Bibliographical Society of America, the chairman of the Friends of the Dartmouth College Library, and associated with various other important literary associations in the country. When he passed, Sotheby’s sold his collection, including this copy of the Declaration, in 1967.
The document then passed on to Sang, who, along with his wife Elsie Sang, added it to their great collection of American documents. In total, Sotheby's states their collection numbered at 1,342 manuscripts, books, broadsides, maps, and artifacts relating to American history. The sale of their collection has been ongoing since 1978, with the latest iteration occurring in 2020, which saw the sale of letters from former Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant, and George Washington totalling US$734,454.