Books and Manuscripts

York-Town: [Pennsylvania]: Printed by John Dunlap (and Robert Aitken), 1778. Volume II only. Second issue (with Dunlap's imprint but incorporating Robert Aitken's sheets from the first issue). 8vo. (ii), 520, xxvii, (5) pp. Quarter brown calf over marbled paper-covered boards, red morocco spine label, stamped in blind and in gilt; all edges trimmed; ownership inscription on front blank; pp. 433-40 and pp. (i)-xvi of index darkened; dampstaining in fore-edge of some leaves at rear; scattered minor spotting to text; scattered marginalia. Evans 15685 and 16137; Hildeburn 3727; Reese, The Revolutionary Hundred 48; ESTC W20598

A significant work pertaining to American Independence and the American Revolution: the second volume of the official Journals of Congress, covering the pivotal year of 1776 and with an early printing of the Declaration of Independence (printed on pp. 241-246). One of the rarest volumes of Congress's Journals, which were printed between 1774-88 and covered the Revolutionary period until the end of the Confederation Congress. This edition has a particularly interesting printing history. Robert Aitken of Philadelphia was the official printer of the Journals of Congress until mid-1777, and printed the first issue of this volume sometime in spring or summer of 1777. When the British, under General William Howe, marched on Philadelphia in the Fall of 1777, Congress and Aitken hastily fled, first to Lancaster, and then to York, Pennsylvania. They took with them what they could, but many copies of the Journals were left behind, and subsequently destroyed by the British. Aitken managed to escape with some of his work, including the printed sheets of the first 424 pages of the 1776 journals, but he was unable to save his press. Having lost many complete copies to the British, and lacking the terminal leaves to complete more, Congress resolved to print the lost leaves while in York. They appointed John Dunlap, the original printer of the Declaration, who had managed to save and transport his press to York. Dunlap then used Aitken's salvaged sheets, printed the remaining pages, and added his own title-page under his own imprint. This volume likely came out sometime between Dunlap's appointment on May 2, 1777, and Congress's return to Philadelphia after the withdrawal of the British, in July, 1778.