The Declaration of Independence lithograph by Napoleaon Sarony after John Trumbull

Hancock, John · 1843-1853

This hand-colored lithograph, titled The Declaration of Independence, depicts an interior scene of the assembly Room at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston, the committee who drafted the document are standing in front of John Hancock, the chairman, who is seated on a red fabric upholstered armchair at a table in the viewer’s left foreground. 42 of the 56 composers, signers, and a few members of Congress who took part in the debates but did not sign, are depicted in this print image including John Dickinson, depicted by a door in a hat. The original Trumbull paintings and this Sarony print, all titled The Declaration of Independence, provide the date July 4th, 1776, under the title, which is why these images have been presumed by many to be a depiction of the famous document’s “signing” but that is incorrect. This image shows the drafting committee presenting their draft to the 2nd Continental Congress, which took place on June 28th, 1776, and not the signing which mostly occurred between July 2 and August 2.