The "First Correct Copy": An 1818 Engraving of the Declaration at Thomas Stone's House

Until 1818, every mass-produced copy of the Declaration of Independence had been set in type on a printing press. That year Benjamin Owen Tyler published an engraving designed to look like the famous handwritten document, all 56 signatures included — hailed as the "first correct copy." About 1,700 were printed, and for the first time ordinary Americans could own a reproduction of the real thing. Tyler's ledger, now at the University of Virginia, shows that every president from John Adams to John Quincy Adams received one.

The Stones' copy

The Stone family bought a copy the year it was published and hung it in the East Room of their house — now Thomas Stone National Historic Site. Direct sunlight, smoke from a nearby fireplace and silverfish discolored and damaged it, and the marks are still visible. When the family sold the property in 1936, the engraving left with them.

Back to the house

On January 1, 1977, fire gutted the center of the house. The owner then sold it and the land around it to the National Park Service, which spent about a decade rebuilding it. Before the house opened to the public in 1996, the Stone family gave the engraving, with other family items, to the Park Service.

In 2019, the fragile, two-century-old document went to a conservator — a specialist who restores and preserves works of art. A copy now hangs in its place, and the original is kept in the park's collections storage.

Sources

Based on "A Commemorative Engraving," National Park Service, Thomas Stone National Historic Site; a work of the United States government in the public domain.