On July 8, 1776, Colonel John Nixon stepped out into the state-house yard in Philadelphia and read the Declaration of Independence publicly for the first time. Historian Charles Henry Hart recorded that Nixon’s voice was so remarkably clear and distinct that it could easily be heard across the street in the gardens of Fifth Street.
The broadside copy of the Declaration that Nixon held that afternoon was later lost to history for decades. It was eventually rediscovered tucked away in a dusty bundle of Nixon’s private family financial ledger books, and that historic piece of paper is now preserved inside Independence Hall as a physical relic of the day the American public first heard their founding ideals.
From: Memoir of the life and services of Colonel John Nixon by Charles Henry Hart, published in 1877. Image from 1876, public domain
