For American History we are working towards the American Revolution in our Crash course studies. A field trip was organized to see a copy of the Southwick Declaration of Independence at Washington University. We signed up to go and learn some interesting facts about this copy. The kids and I have seen been to the National Archives to see the handwritten copy several years ago.
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| The campus of this University is so pretty - reminds me of Europe in many ways! |
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The whereabouts of this broadside was unknown until 1941, when a private collector offered it for sale for $750. The Newman family acquired and displayed it on their wall at their home for over 60 years before gifted it to the university.
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ON July 4, 1776, 2 days after the approval of the resolution dissolving all allegiance to Britain, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration which Ben Franklin and John Adams edited (More on that later). Congress directed John Dunlap to print copies, known as Broadsides to be sent to every state and to the army. (information taken from museum brochure)
A copy of the Dunlap Broadside arrived in Rhode Island on July 6, 1776. Solomon Southwick used that copy to print 29 copies and distributed them throughout the state. These copies became known as the "Southwick Broadside". When Henry Ward, secretary of the sate assembly signed the broadside, he became the first person to sign ANY copy of the Declaration, preceding even John Hancock, whose name was printed on the broadside to attest its authenticity. There are only 7 known "Southwick broadsides" copies that survived from the original 29 printed. (information taken from the museum brochure)
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| Unlike the copy in the national archives which was handwritten and printed on Parchment paper, this copy is printed on rag cloth cotton paper. |
After viewing the document we had a short lecture about the edits made to the document. Jefferson was know for being very intentional in his choice of words for the document and most of Franklin and Adams changes were very small. However there was one paragraph that was completely omitted (I did not know this).
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| The group had a great discussion of this paragraph what it meant and why it was omitted. We also discussed why America decided to stop importing slaves into the country (for economic reasons). |
After this we were able to explore another exhibit Called Data Visualization through the years. I thought it was fascinating. The curator said this exhibit was in part due to a recently donated time line
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| Sebastian C. Adams Synchronological Chart 1883 |
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| It is over 25 feet long and covers the period from 4004 BC, the biblical beginning of man, to 1871 and transitions between biblical history and secular history. |
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| the chart includes genealogy, cultural development, geography, and history |
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| Color is used to delineate section of the timeline using a technique called Chromolithography |
My pictures do not do this amazing time line justice!
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| We learned that graph paper invented in 1794 and lined paper came about 10 years laters! William Playfair invented the bar graph! |
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| Most people have heard how John Snow used maps to track down and locate the water system for the chorlea outbreak in London |
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| Florence nightgale also used date Visualization to determine if soldiers died from injuries or infections and it why hospital staff implement hand washing |
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| Edward Muybridge invented zoopraxiscope,a device for projected moving images. He completed a number of studies on animal locomotion! |
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| and of course the future o date visualization is at hand. |
It was a great day at the University museum and we learn so much! Do not forget to check out the museums in universities near you, you never know what they have on display!
