For the first time ever, Bangor area residents have the chance to see one of the earliest copies of the Declaration of Independence up close.
One of 26 remaining copies of the “Dunlap Broadside,” the first printed version of the Declaration of Independence, is on view at the Bangor Public Library until Saturday.
“It’s really the closest that we can get to the moment of independence and the wording that Congress wanted to share with everyone,” Tiffany Link, collections curator for the Maine Historical Society, said.
The showing is part of the first statewide tour for the Maine Historical Society’s copy of the document, which the society has owned since it was donated by Dr. John S. H. Fogg of Eliot in 1905.
“He wanted people in his home state to be able to have this really up close and up front connection to history without having to go to New York or Boston or Washington, D.C.,” Link said.
The tour is visiting each of Maine’s 16 counties, and Bangor is the 10th stop.
“We wanted to really find a way for all Mainers to participate in the 250th,” Stephen Bromage, the Maine Historical Society’s executive director, said. So far, about 10,000 people have come in to see it.
It is estimated that John Dunlap, printer for the Continental Congress, printed about 200 copies of the declaration on the night of July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia. Those documents were based on the draft the congress adopted that day and distributed throughout the 13 colonies to spread the word about American independence. It wasn’t until a month later that the declaration was actually signed, Link said.
“It’s amazing. Really incredible,” Richard Helmke of Bernard said after viewing the declaration. “Gives me goosebumps. I’m amazed at the condition of it.”
At every stop, Link said, people say something like, “I can’t believe I got to see this in Eastport. I can’t believe I got to see this in Dover-Foxcroft, or Bangor.”
By Thursday afternoon, four people had cried while viewing the document at the library, she said.
The tour is a way for the historical society to bring a part of America’s history to every part of the state and spark conversation about “how we move forward at this very fraught period in our history,” Link said, adding that the declaration is an opportunity for people to think about the grievances described in the declaration and which ones still resonate.
“It’s telling you that you as a citizen have that power” to change your country, Link said, and “it’s actually your responsibility. And that if you don’t control your government, then it’s going to control you.”
The tour’s next stop is in Skowhegan, where the document will be on view at the Margaret Chase Smith Library on Sept. 25 and 26. The historical society also added a bonus stop on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at Skowhegan Area High School so every middle and high school student in the town can see it, Bromage said.
Timed tickets for the Bangor stop are offered every half hour from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. You can reserve them here.