Books and Manuscripts

The Rare John Dunlap Yorktown Edition of the Journals of Congress: With an Early Printing of the Declaration of Independence

York-Town: [Pennsylvania]: Printed by John Dunlap (and Robert Aitken), 1778. Second issue (with Dunlap's imprint but incorporating Robert Aitken's sheets from the first issue). 8vo. (ii), 520, xxvii pp. Unsophisticated three-quarter contemporary brown calf over paper-covered boards, spine stamped in black, joints cracked but sound, boards moderately worn and soiled, corners worn, spine dry and splitting; all edges trimmed; book-plate of Rev. Edwin A. Dalrymple on front paste-down, ink stamp of the Maryland Diocesan Library below same; sheets toned; in quarter blue morocco slip case and chemise. Evans 15685 and 16137; Hildeburn 3727; ESTC W20598; Matyas, Declaration of Independence 77-09B; Reese, The Revolutionary Hundred 48

A great Revolutionary rarity, the official Journals of Congress, covering the pivotal year of 1776, with an early printing of the Declaration of Independence (printed on pp. 241-246). 

This volume of the Journals is one of the rarest of the series, which was issued from 1774 to 1788, and has a peculiar and romantic publication history. Textually it covers the exciting events of 1776, culminating with the Declaration of Independence on July 4, as well as all of the other actions of Congress for the year. Through the middle of 1777 the printer of the Journals of Congress was Robert Aitken of Philadelphia. In 1777 he published the first issue of the Journals for 1776, under his own imprint (this was completed in the spring or summer). In the fall of 1777 the British campaign under General Howe forced the American Congress to evacuate Philadelphia, moving first to Lancaster and then to York, Pennsylvania. The fleeing Congress took with it what it could, but it was unable to remove many copies of its printed Journals, which would have been bulky and difficult to transport. Presumably, any left behind in Philadelphia were destroyed by the British, accounting for the particular scarcity of those volumes today. Among some of the material that was evacuated from Philadelphia were the printed sheets of pages 1-424 of the 1776 Journals, printed by Aitken. Having lost many complete copies in Philadelphia, and not having the terminal sheets to make up more copies, Congress resolved to reprint the remainder of the volume. 

The Journals, however, had not in fact made their way all the way to Lancaster or York, but remained with a papermaker named Frederic Bicking, who had been instructed to hide them from the British and local Tories. During the winter of 1777-78, Massachusetts representative James Lovell (who was on the committee overseeing the printing of the Journals) wrote to George Washington at Valley Forge to request a search party be sent to find them: “I am not insensible of the great Affairs which press your Excellency on every side,” he wrote, “but, I really thought this Business of recovering the Journals was important enough to warrant the Freedom I now take of applying to you.” Washington agreed, and responded a week later that the Journals had been found and brought to Valley Forge, soon to make their way to York (George Washington from James Lovell, 31 December 1777,” and “From George Washington to James Lovell, 9 January 1778; Founders Online).

While Aitken had not evacuated his equipment, John Dunlap, the printer of the original Declaration, had. Congress thus appointed Dunlap as the new printer to Congress on May 2, 1778. Dunlap then took the recovered Aitken sheets and reprinted the rest of the volume (coming out to a slightly different pagination from Aitken's version). He added to this a new title-page, under his imprint at York, and with a notice on the verso noting his appointment as printer to Congress. This presumably came out between his appointment on May 2 and the return of Congress to Philadelphia in July 1778.

Because of Dunlap's name on the title-page, it has often been erroneously assumed that this volume contains a printing of the Declaration of Independence by Dunlap. In fact, that appears in the section of the original Aitken printing. Evans has further muddied the waters by the ghost entry of Evans 15685, ascribing a Dunlap, York printing to 1777. In fact, there is only one Dunlap version, Evans 16137, with the 1778 date.

Scarce to auction, especially in contemporary boards.