Find a Copy of the Declaration of Independence in New Hampshire

On the 4th of July we celebrate our independence as Americans, and you can find the document that outlines that freedom right in The Granite State.

We also honor a document that stated:

 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". 

A family friend Dick Brewster had worked with my father for New England Telephone for years.  When he retired Mr. Brewster concentrated on a security system company he had started..  In 1985 one of his assignments was installing a  system in the historic  Ladd-Gilman house in downtown Exeter.

While working in the attic among papers that were in between rafters Brewster and his assistant discovered was what turned out to be a long lost copy of the New hampshire. "Dunlap Broadsides"

The "broadside" is a poster copy of the Declaration of Independence, one of 200 copies sent out from Philadelphia printer John Dunlap to the thirteen colonies. Exeter was the Revolutionary War capital and the New Hampshire copy arrived July 16th, 1776.

John Taylor Gilman read the document to the residents of Exeter from the Town Hall steps.

Upon the authentification of the Brewster find and after some debate over the ownership of the document, the State of New Hampshire agreed to display a reproduction in the American Independence Museum in Exeter. The Dunlap Broadside is on display for the public May through October Tuesday through Saturday 10-4.