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A Rare Declaration of Independence Broadside Printed by a Secret British Loyalist Is Up for Auction

With 10 days remaining in Goldin's 2026 USA 250th Anniversary Historical Auction, bidding has already reached $1.2 million. A comparable Exeter broadside sold at Christie's earlier this year achieved just under $5.7 million.

On the night of July 4, 1776, a Philadelphia printer named John Dunlap was handed a draft of what is arguably the most consequential document in American history and told to get it into print. He set type through the night, printing around 200 broadside copies of the manuscript that would be read aloud at town gatherings, nailed to posts and passed from hand to hand. Some went to local printers across the colonies, who produced their own editions. One of those was Robert Luist Fowle in Exeter, New Hampshire, whose Exeter broadside, which hit the presses on July 16, was one of 13 contemporary broadsides produced in July and August of 1776. Of those 13 editions, only around 120 broadsides survive, with the majority now held by institutions. According to........

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