A 1776 issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette will join the collection of Revolutionary era artifacts at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.
The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation in the spring purchased an issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette — once published by Benjamin Franklin — released on June 12, 1776, which contains the full version of the Virginia Declaration. The acquisition, made using private donations, was not announced until earlier this month.
The newspaper is planned for display near a July 1776 broadside of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which is currently on display at the Yorktown Victory Center. The newspaper will not be added to the exhibition until 2016, when the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown replaces the Yorktown Victory Center.
The Virginia Declaration of Rights was the predecessor of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and was drafted on a May 1776 resolution of the Virginia Convention. The convention called for a committee to draft a declaration of rights and governmental structure to forward to the Continental Congress.
The first public printing of the Virginia Declaration, primarily authored by George Mason, appeared in the June 1, 1776 issue of The Virginia Gazette. The foundation sought the Pennsylvania edition instead because it was available to Thomas Jefferson and the other authors of the Declaration of Independence, which was drafted in Philadelphia.
Once open, the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown will “present a comprehensive overview of the people and events of the Revolution, from the mid-1700s to the early national period,” according to a release. The Yorktown Victory Center is open during the new museum’s construction, but will close for a move to the new building early next year.
For more information about the museums and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, visit the foundation’s website.
