{"id":279994,"date":"2026-06-27T18:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T18:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/279994\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T18:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T18:40:09","slug":"westchesters-rare-declaration-of-independence-print-will-finally-be-on-display-after-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/279994\/","title":{"rendered":"Westchester’s rare Declaration of Independence print will finally be on display after 30 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

A very rare and priceless copy of the Declaration of Independence is finally going on display to the public in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Holt Broadside printing of the Declaration sat in Westchester County’s archives for decades, but it will soon be viewable at the Neuberger Museum of Art<\/a> at SUNY Purchase thanks to a robust preservation effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The past 30 years it’s kind of just been hiding here in the archives, and no one’s really even known about it,” said Courtney Fallon, Westchester County’s archive manager.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"aiello-5p-pkg-wc-holt-b-wcbsi8zm-hi-res-still-1.jpg<\/p>\n

Westchester’s Holt Broadside is now preserved in a high-tech case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CBS News New York<\/p>\n

Priceless piece of U.S. history<\/p>\n

Only five Holt Broadside copies are known to exist, including the county’s copy, which was printed on July 9, 1776, and read to a crowd at the White Plains courthouse two days later.<\/p>\n

“After the Declaration was signed on July 4, 1776, they needed a way to get this news out to the people. They’re like, ‘OK, we just declared we’re now independent from England. How are we going to tell people?'” said Fallon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Declaration of Independence opens with stirring words about “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” but most of the text is a list of 27 grievances against King George III.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The United States breakup document with Great Britain,” said Marguerite Beirne, Westchester’s chief information officer. “‘We’re breaking up with you. We’re claiming our independence. We don’t need you anymore. Take a hike.'”\u00a0<\/p>\n

High-tech preservation<\/p>\n

The Broadside was printed by John Holt, whose shop at Water and Broad in Manhattan was later burned by the British invading the city in late 1776.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

The county’s precious copy remains in excellent condition and can finally go on public display because it is now kept inside a high-tech climate-controlled case, Fallon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"aiello-5p-pkg-wc-holt-b-wcbsi8zm-hi-res-still-00-00-3702.jpg<\/p>\n

Westchester preserved the rare copy of the Declaration of Independence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Westchester County<\/p>\n

“It’s very rare, and of course, so much work was placed into it to preserve this document,” said Stephanie Bradford, Westchester’s archive director.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Holt Broadside will be viewable at the museum on the Purchase College campus starting in July<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A very rare and priceless copy of the Declaration of Independence is finally going on display to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51495,22954,9,11,10,1628],"class_list":["post-279994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america-at-250","tag-declaration-of-independence","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-westchester-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}