Anderson High School to display rare copy of Declaration of Independence

Anderson High School to display rare copy of Declaration of Independence

By Community Impact Newspaper Staff Thursday, 28 January 2010

AUSTIN — One of 25 surviving copies of a rare broadside of the US Declaration of Independence is scheduled to be on display in North Austin’s Anderson High School, 8403 Mesa Drive, on Feb. 5. Community members will be able to view, for free, this historic document from 5 to 7 p.m.

At noon on Feb. 5, the campus will host a preview for local, state, and school district leaders, including district Superintendent Meria Carstarphen. The Hill Elementary School choir and the Anderson Barbershop Quartet are scheduled to perform at the noon preview.

The broadside is one of about 200 printed copies of the then newly drafted Declaration of Independence that was printed in John Dunlap’s Philadelphia shop on July 4, 1776. After the copies were made, the documents were rushed to the 13 colonies and to the militia to be read aloud to the people. The Dunlap broadsides predate the original hand written and signed Declaration of Independence housed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.