The New York Public Library is gearing up to exhibit a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence, which was handwritten by Thomas Jefferson.
The document will be on display in the Celeste Bartos Forum of the Library’s landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street from June 27 to July 3. The exhibit is free. Here is more about the historic form: “The Declaration of Independence was completed on July 1, but before it was ratified on July 4, several changes were made to the text, including the removal of Jefferson’s lengthy condemnation of the slave trade, an excision intended to appease delegates from Georgia and South Carolina. In the days after July 4, a distressed Jefferson wrote out several fair copies of his original text and sent them to five or six friends. The Library’s copy is one of the two copies that have survived intact.”
It will also be part of a naturalization ceremony that is scheduled for July 2nd.