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Historical treasures will be displayed from July 3 to July 6; extended hours available
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2025 – From Thursday, July 3, through Sunday, July 6, 2025, to celebrate Independence Day, the National Archives will display several historic documents related to the Declaration of Independence, including Richard Henry Lee’s June 7, 1776, resolution calling for independence and a July 5, 1776, original Dunlap Broadside first-edition printing of the Declaration of Independence.
These five rarely-displayed documents–exhibited together for the first time ever–will be displayed alongside the original Declaration of Independence in the National Archives Rotunda as part of the newly-launched Opening the Vault exhibition series.
The National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, will be open for extended hours July 3 to 6 from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m ET. Admission to the Museum is free. Timed entry tickets are encouraged but not required. Visitors are encouraged to go to visit.archives.gov to learn more about the museum experience.
The special display will include:
Richard Henry Lee was a Virginia Delegate to the Second Continental Congress. Lee introduced this resolution, which proposed independence for the American colonies. The Lee Resolution contained three parts: a declaration of independence, a call to form foreign alliances, and a “plan for confederation.” On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the first part of Lee’s resolution, leading to the issuance of the Declaration of Independence and the creation of the United States of America.
This document records the proceeding in which the Continental Congress voted to declare independence. The words of the resolution are echoed in the Declaration of Independence. The bottom half of the document lists the 12 colonies that voted “aye;” the 13th colony, New York, abstained, awaiting approval to cast a vote from the newly elected New York Convention.
This is the first printing of the Declaration of Independence. After the Second Continental Congress voted for independence, the delegates tasked printer John Dunlap to print about 200 copies of the final text. Working through the afternoon and evening of July 4 and into the next day, these broadsides were quickly dispatched throughout the country. Now known as the “Dunlap Broadsides,” most of the 26 extant copies belong to institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Numerous ceremonial copies of the Declaration of Independence were created in the aftermath of the War of 1812. In 1818, engraver Benjamin Tyler published his ceremonial engraving. He dedicated it to the Declaration’s principal author, Thomas Jefferson, and included an attestation by the acting Secretary of State Richard Rush, son of signer Benjamin Rush, that it was a correct copy. The National Park Service estimates that Tyler produced 1,700 copies. The National Archives has one copy of the Tyler Engraving.
During the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976, at the request of the National Archives, master printer Angelo LoVecchio at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing made a printing from William Stone’s 1823 copper engraving plate of the Declaration of Independence. This was the first use of the engraving plate since the 1890s, and the last print run ever made. LoVecchio made six impressions, five of which are held in the National Archives and one in Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
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