The Declaration of Independence
Henry S. Sadd, English, 1810 - 1893
after John Trumbull, American, 1756 - 1843
not dated
Hand colored engraving on wove paper
Sheet: 14 1/4 × 19 1/4 in. (36.2 × 48.9 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Guernsey Center Moore 1904 Memorial Fund
PR.950.74
Geography
Place Made: England, United Kingdom, Europe
Period
19th century
Object Name
Research Area
On view
Inscriptions
Printed, lower left: PAINTED BY JOHN TRUMBULL, ESQ.; center: NEW YORK, PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY J. NEALE, 56 CARMINE STREET./THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,/Of the United States of America July 4th 1776.; lower right: ENGRAVED ON STEEL BY H.S. SADD, N.Y./PROOF
Label
John Trumbull’s famous painting of the presentation of the Declaration of Independence was installed in the United States Capitol rotunda in 1826; although the scene is fictionalized, the painter made many of the portraits from life and even studied the architecture of Independence Hall. Cheap prints such as this one made Trumbull’s painting widely accessible, and its replication rendered the image into an iconic moment in early imaginations of American history. Placing Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Hancock at the center, the print canonizes them as Revolutionary heroes. The printmaker Sadd had only moved to the United States from Great Britain in about 1840. The yellow color of the page is due to the deterioration of the inexpensive paper.
From the 2025-26 exhibition Revolution Reconsidered: History, Myth, and Propaganda, curated by Michael W. Hartman (Jonathan Little Cohen Curator of American Art), Haely Chang (Jane and Raphael Bernstein Associate Curator of East Asian Art), Elizabeth Rice Mattison (Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art), Ashley B. Offill (Curator of Collections), and Evonne Fuselier (Hood Museum Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellow)
Exhibition History
Revolution Reconsidered: History, Myth, and Propaganda, Harteveldt Family Gallery and Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 18, 2025 - August 8, 2026.
Provenance
Cora McDevitt Wilson (1880-1975), The Book & Print Shop, Hanover, New Hampshire; sold to present collection, 1950.
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