U.Va. holds Revolution copies of Va. Gazette

The Associated Press / News Virginian
Published: November 18, 2007

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The state's first published report on the Declaration of Independence is now at the University of Virginia library.

The University of Virginia library has acquired 133 rare Revolutionary War-era copies of the Virginia Gazette. The collection includes the newspaper's July 19, 1776, edition with the report on the Declaration of Independence.

"We're talking about very rare copies of historic newspapers," said Christian Dupont, director of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at U.Va. "Very few newspapers like this have survived."

The collection spans from Jan. 5, 1776, to Dec. 19, 1777. The nation's early shifting political landscape is reflected in the paper's pages.

One example: the Gazette's masthead changed on May 17, 1776, from the British royal coat-of-arms to a box that reads "Thirteen United Colonies. United we stand, divided we fall."
The newspapers also include essays by Thomas Paine, reporting on Revolutionary War battles, and ads seeking runaway slaves.
Founded in 1736, the Virginia Gazette is still published today twice a week. It is one of the nation's oldest newspapers still in business. "So much of the founding of our country took place within a 20-mile radius of the area our paper covers," said editor Rusty Carter.

The collection was purchased from The Mitchell Archives, a historic newspaper dealer in Fairfax, at what Dupont called "a substantial investment for the library." He did not disclose the purchase price.

The university's new collection also includes a July 26, 1776, copy of the Williamsburg-based Gazette that includes the full text of the Declaration of Independence. That edition was the second time it had been published in Virginia, as a rival loyalist newspaper had published it in its entirety a few days earlier.
Only four copies of the July 26 edition of the Virginia Gazette exist today. The remaining three copies are owned by the Library of Virginia, the Library of Congress and the College of William and Mary.

The purchase of the newspapers was made possible thanks to donations from U.Va. alumnus and Maryland real estate developer Albert H. Small. Small, a 1946 graduate, is a collector of Declaration of Independence documents and materials.
Small's collection is on permanent display at U.Va.'s special collections library in an exhibit called "Declaring Independence: Creating and Recreating America's Document."

Included in the exhibit is a first edition copy of the Declaration made by John Dunlap on the evening of July 4, 1776. The exhibit also includes a set of autographed letters from all 56 signers of the Declaration, as well as early printings of the Declaration, including one owned by the Marquis de Lafayette.