AR / ITEM / 00100415
Dunlap Broadside, the Flea-Market Copy
A first printing of the Declaration of Independence found in 1989 behind a painting bought for $4 at a flea market, later bought by Norman Lear for $8.14 million.
- Date
- 4–5 July 1776
Plate not recorded
No photograph with documented reuse rights is held for this record.
Record
Congress ordered the Declaration printed on 4 July 1776, and John Dunlap of Philadelphia set and printed the broadsides overnight. In 1989 a Philadelphia financial analyst bought a painting at a flea market in Adamstown, Pennsylvania, for $4 because he liked the frame, and found this broadside folded behind the canvas; it was the 25th Dunlap copy known. It sold at Sotheby's in 1991 for $2.42 million, a record for printed Americana. In June 2000 Norman Lear and David Hayden bought it in an online Sotheby's auction for $8.14 million, and sent it on a tour of the United States.
- Culture
- American
- Origin
- Philadelphia, United States
In the Tapestry
- Made by · 1776
- John DunlapB
- Owned by · from 2000
- Norman LearA
- Made in · 1776
- PhiladelphiaB
- Associated with · 1776
- United States Declaration of IndependenceB
Sources
- A
Snopes, 'Did a Bargain Hunter Find Original Print of Declaration of Independence?'
↗ View original record - B
Wikipedia, 'Dunlap broadside'
↗ View original record