Historical Americana Co.

Declaration of Independence Information The Continental Congress charged five men with the responsibility to commit to paper the American colonies’ Declaration of Independence from Britain: Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), John Adams (1735-1826), Robert Livingston (1746-1813), and Roger Sherman (1721-93). Most scholars today now view the authorship of this document to be highly collaborative both among these five individuals (who made forty-seven alterations to Jefferson’s original draft) and among the members of Congress, who made another thirty-nine alterations after voting for independence on July 2, 1776. After the Declaration was approved on July 4, it was immediately set in type as a broadside and printed overnight by John Dunlap, the official printer to Congress. Copies of the printed version were immediately distributed to all of the colonies, where in some instances they were reprinted by local printers so that by July 18, twenty-four newspapers had republished the text of the Declaration. The Pennsylvania Evening Post, printed by Benjamin Towne (d. 1793), was the first newspaper to include the text in its pages.  There is only one copy of the engrossed and signed Declaration of Independence, in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. This copy was produced and signed several weeks after the Declaration of… Read More

A amazing and very rare 31 Star Antique Flag  California   Circa 1850-1858  Zachary Taylor was President A rare pre-Civil War Flag Frame Size 28×43 Flag Size 22×38 Incredible rare thirty-one star flag with exceedingly rare star pattern called a Medallion, Halo. It was recently found in old home in the Gettysburg Virginia area.  It has been in their family since the before the Civil War. The owner offered it to me for purchase. The original owner does not wish to be disturbed. Thirty-one star flags are extremely rare, both because they were official for only eight years and because they were made before the Civil War.  Flags predating the Civil War time period (1861-1865) are the rarest and most desirable of all US flags.  Prior to the Civil War, Americans did not typically own or display flags for patriotic purposes.  And likewise the military did not regularly use the flag, as it was not until 1834 that the army field artillery was permitted to carry the traditional US flag, and it was not until 1841 that regiments carried it.  For these reasons, flags made prior to the Civil War account for only around 1-in-1000 flags made in the 19th century.     The stars of this… Read More