1818 "Declaration of Independence" Broadside Engraving by Benjamin Owen Tyler

This is a stunning 1818 engraving of the Declaration of Independence, the first engraved broadside of our nation’s founding document. The year 1815 saw the conclusion of the United States’ second war with Britain, the War of 1812, and our American nationalism peaked in its wake. As the nation approached fifty years of independence and the Revolutionary War generation aged, American citizens began to look back in reverence to the country's founding documents as a source of national pride and purpose.  Entrepreneurial publishers hoped to fill this demand and rushed to produce the first engraved printing of the Declaration of Independence.  The American populace was hungry for prints, paintings, and books that retold and celebrated their nation’s founding. Two publishers- Benjamin Owen Tyler and John Binns- created engraved copies of the Declaration, however in distinctively different styles. Binns was the first to announce his Declaration printing and was the first to collect subscriptio