Kennesaw State to unveil restored copy of Declaration of Independence

KENNESAW, Ga. — Kennesaw State University will unveil a restored copy of the Declaration of Independence on Thursday.

The copy, which dates back to 1843, will be displayed at Kennesaw State’s Sturgis Library alongside other historical documents as part of of a traveling exhibit called “We The People: The Documents That Made Our Nation.”

KSU first obtained the copy 24 years ago.

“When I first laid eyes on it when I first got here, I wasn’t familiar with the history of the copies,” KSU Curator JoyEllen Williams told Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen last year. “This is John Hancock’s very large signature. He was the first to sign it.”

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Williams says at the turn of the 19th century, President John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State at the time, ordered hundreds of copies to be made because the original was already showing its age.

Back in 2023, Channel 2 Action News reported that the document would cost $6,000 to preserve and would take many months.

To learn more about the preservation project, click here: https://crowdfund.kennesaw.edu/project/32720

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