Report: “Rhode Island’s Copies of the Declaration of Independence Were Nearly Destroyed. The State Restored Them. Take a Look”

From The Boston Globe:

After years of being stored in an outdated case, the second printing document itself became fragile and brittle, and was hidden from public view. It wasn’t until 2018, under [RI] Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, who oversees the State Archives, that the document selected to be restored.

The State Archives partnered with the Northeast Document Conservation Center, which “rescues” all sorts of historical records throughout New England. To restore the document, they had to remove the excess lining on the back and the fragments of the document that had been torn off previously had to be matched up like a puzzle.

After 14 weeks of delicate restoration, and at a cost of $16,800, the project was complete.

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Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, News, Preservation