Peter Force. American Archives:...

Description

Peter Force's American Archives, with a rare facsimile of the Declaration of Independence

Peter Force. American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs, the Whole Forming a Documentary History of the Origin and Progress of the North American Colonies; of the Causes and Accomplishment of the American Revolution; and of the Constitution of Government for the United States, to the Final Ratification Thereof. Volume 1, Fifth Series: From the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, to the Definitive Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, in 1783. Washington, D.C.: M. St. Clair Clarke and Peter Force, April 1848. Large Quarto. ciii, 1788 pages including Index. With original half leather and marbled boards with gilt titled spine.

[Complete with:]William J. Stone for Peter Force: The Declaration of Independence. Single oversized sheet, approximately 29" x 24.5", copperplate engraving on thin rice paper. Folded and bound into the volume on page 1598.

Condition: Facsimile has vertical and horizontal creases. One large separation on the right margin near the mount (affecting some text), and another tear on the left margin, not affecting text. Some losses to spine with heavy rubbing and general wear. No titling remaining on spine. The front and back covers have become completely detached, along with pages i-viii. Cracked binding. Rubbed and bumped corners, worn extremities. Pages bear light foxing, with some marginal chipping.

More Information: In 1820, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams had commissioned William J. Stone of Washington to engrave an exact copy of the original Declaration of Independence onto a copperplate, a process which took three years to complete. Stone used a new Wet-Ink transfer process to create a copperplate from which facsimile copies could then be made. By wetting the original document, some of the original ink was transferred to the copperplate, which was then used for printing. There were 201 official parchment copies struck from the Stone plate. These are identified as "Engraved by W. J. Stone for the Department of State, by order" in the upper left corner, followed by "of J. Q. Adams, Sec. of State July 4th 1824" in the upper right corner. Stone kept one copy for himself (this copy now resides in the Smithsonian) and delivered 200 copies to the Department of State. In 1833, historian and printer Peter Force, under contract with the Department of State authorized by an act of Congress, planned to compile a vast work in at least twenty volumes, to be known as the American Archives, a Documentary History of the English Colonies in North America. It included legislative records, documents, and historic private correspondence. Six volumes were published from 1837-1846 and three more were published between 1846-1853. The nine volumes covered the years 1774-1776. The "Wet Ink" copperplate created by William J. Stone had been removed from storage and, from it, Force printed copies on rice paper. In the lower left of each copy, Force printed: "W. J. STONE SC. WASHN." These documents were then folded and inserted into the American Archives collection.

Peter Force's unfinished mammoth series documenting the early history of the North American colonies. He had initially planned twenty volumes in six "series," but only nine were completed: the volumes containing documents of the Revolutionary War era. The First, Second, Third, and Sixth Series were never published. Peter Force (1790-1868) drew on his own huge private collection of printed and manuscript documents relating to the history of North America and the United States as sources for these Archives. When the Library of Congress was established in 1867, one year before his death, his treasure trove of documents was purchased -- by an Act of Congress -- for the astounding sum of $100,000.