1 piece.
[United States Constitution.] The Pennsylvania Packet, and Daily Advertiser. No. 2690. [Philadelphia: Dunlap & Claypoole], September 19, 1787. Folio, unbound & untrimmed, 19 1/4 x 11 7/8 inches (488 x 302 mm). 4 pp. Very slightly browned, small dampstain in upper margin above "The" of banner, and in that relative position on the other three pages, unobtrusive early ink scrawl & mathematical calculations confined to two small areas in margins, vertical & horizontal fold marks on first leaf, with minute area of separation at their conjunction. Faint old pencil signature of Hannah Biddle Williams in margin above fore-edge portion of banner.
The first publication, or public printing, of the U.S. Constitution, preceded only by the two "draft" or "transcript" printings for the use of delegates only, and the first printing of the final text of the Constitution for submission to the Continental Congress. The Pennsylvania Packet printing & the printings which preceded it were all executed by John Dunlap and David C. Claypoole, the official printers of the Constitutional Convention & proprietors of The Pennsylvania Packet.
The text of the Constitution in the Pennsylvania Packet was printed from the same setting of type as Dunlap and Claypoole's "official edition," with the exception of the Preamble which was reset in larger type. With the exception of a corrected printer's error, the rest of the unaltered text was reimposed to fit on four rather than six pages. Therefore, the Pennsylvania Packet printing is not only the first public printing of the Constitution, but also the second issue of the first printing of the final text of the Constitution.
Evans 20819; Brigham 2:942
Freeman's has examined this copy against the trimmed & bound copy held by the Library Company of Pennsylvania, and found that all typographic & paper stock features correspond. As is to be expected, small variations which result from separate inkings of the type & the varying conditions to which paper is exposed for over 200 years are present.
Provenance: Family descent from Hannah Biddle Williams and Charles Williams to J. Stanley Reeve and Eleanor Wilbur Reeve to the estate of their offspring, the consignor.