Join us on Wednesday, July 1 to celebrate the Declaration of Independence! We are pleased to announce our upcoming event in honor of the 250th, where we will have our broadside version of the Declaration of Independence, printed by Ezekiel Russell in Salem on July 17, 1776, on display in the Collection Spotlight case in our main reading room (room 341 in the State House).
Special Collections staff will be on hand to share the Declaration along with the ten broadsides featured in our new exhibit, Raising the Alarm: Revolutionary Broadsides at the State Library. Though the exhibit features facsimiles, the originals, which date from 1773 through 1779, will be pulled from storage for this special event so that visitors can see them up close and imagine themselves as members of the Committee of Correspondence, distributing word of the Revolutionary War.
This event is free and open to the public; stop by the State Library between 11:00 and 1:00 to see these stirring documents on display as the country approaches its 250th birthday. Reach out to us at special.collections@mass.gov with any questions, and we hope to see you there!
As a patriotic bonus to in-person visitors, we are giving out free Pocket Constitutions
and Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) rulers. The Pocket Constitutions also include the Declaration of
Independence, and the FDLP Ruler is an 8" ruler and its reverse shows the
presidents of the United States in chronological order. Please note the Library has a limited supply and visitors are limited to one
copy of each per person.
