Rare Holt Broadside of Declaration of Independence at Cincinnati Museum Center

The Cincinnati Museum Center's Cincinnati History Library and Archives possesses one of the rare remaining copies of the Holt broadside version of the Declaration of Independence. Although the Continental Congress approved the Declaration in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, New York's delegates were not authorized at that time. The New York Provincial Congress sanctioned it on July 9, 1776, commissioning printer John Holt to create 500 broadsides, which included the resolution from the Provincial Congress and Holt's name. These copies were distributed to the Continental Congress, leading to the engrossed parchment signed on August 2, 1776. This particular copy features the signature of Richard Fosdick, who relocated to Cincinnati in 1810, became the first pork packer in the city, and served on its inaugural town council in 1815, later acting as county treasurer in 1829. His grandson, Wood Fosdick, presented the broadside to the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio on February 17, 1877. A red ink catalog number (18801) from the 1870s verifies its early existence in the library.