HALLOWELL — The public will get to see the city’s 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence – pegged at a value of $1.2 million – at two events commemorating the Fourth of July this year.
The document’s value has necessitated special security arrangements. It will be under police guard at events from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at City Hall.
It will be the first time in more than 20 years that the document will be displayed.
“This is an opportunity to show something that the city owns to the people of the community and outside of the community,” City Manager Michael Starn said. “If we have this document that’s just put somewhere and nobody can see it, that seems counterintuitive.”
Just after the Declaration of Independence’s adoption by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the copy was one of many printed by colonial governments and circulated to residents to spread the news that their leaders, who were in the midst of the Revolutionary War with Great Britain, considered themselves sovereign.
The state council in Massachusetts, which included Maine, ordered 250 copies from a Salem, Massachusetts, printer. One was sent to Fort Western in Hallowell, which included what’s now Augusta and Chelsea and parts of Farmingdale and Manchester. That copy was supposed to be read to church congregations in Hallowell and present-day Gardiner and returned to the fort, according to an 1870 book.
But it apparently wasn’t returned and didn’t resurface until 1908, when E.T. Getchell, a Hallowell native, donated it to a museum in the Hubbard Free Library. That’s where City Historian Sam Webber found it framed on an office wall in 1976. It was loaned to the Maine State Museum for an exhibit from 1990 to 1993, and it’s now in storage there.
In May, New York appraiser Seth Kaller placed its replacement value at $1.2 million, saying it’s one of about 20 known copies in existence, which include others that were sent to Wiscasset and North Yarmouth. Hallowell looked into getting the document insured for the two events, but that alone would have cost $3,000, Starn said.
Now, the city will task local police with guarding the document during the events. Chief Eric Nason and Starn wouldn’t give details of the city’s plan to protect the document, but Starn said it will be locked in a safe overnight between events and before its return to the museum. Cellphones and cameras won’t be allowed at the events to shield it from light, Nason said.
“We think we’re using the appropriate amount of caution to ensure the safety of the document,” Starn said.
At the presentations, the declaration will be read by Mayor Mark Walker on the first day and by former mayor and current state Rep. Charlotte Warren, D-Hallowell, on the second. Webber will give short talks on the document’s history.
“It belongs to the citizens of Hallowell, so we’re just showing them what belongs to them,” Webber said.
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