Why the Declaration of Independence We Display Isn’t the Original

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Declaration of Independence is one of the most famous documents ever written. Its words helped launch a revolution and have inspired independence movements around the world ever since.

But the parchment signed in 1776 faded badly over time. By the early twentieth century, it was nearly impossible to reproduce clearly. The version most Americans recognize today exists because of Theodore Ohman, an immigrant craftsman who settled in Memphis, Tennessee. Mark Hill tells the story of how Ohman created the detailed reproduction that preserved the Declaration’s appearance for generations

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. The Declaration of
Independence is one of, if not the most important documents
in American history, and for that matter, world history, and
it goes deeper than just its historical relevance. For most Americans,
they're very idea of what constitutes our core values comes

(00:31):
directly from the words in a declaration.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
But for all of its.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Weight and power, we don't hang a replica of the
original on our walls. That's because the document is nearly
faded into oblivion. We hang a copy, a readable copy,
on our walls, and we can thank an immigrant for that.
Theodore Omen here to share the story of the man
who made America's favorite copy of the Declaration is Mark hill.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Or.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Omen was born in eighteen ninety two.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Interestingly enough, he actually lived very close to Franz Ferdinand's castle.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Franz Ferdinand, who many may know.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
It was the assassination of him and his wife in
nineteen fourteen that started World War One. It ignited World
War One, so when Omen grew up, it really wasn't
the freest country in the world. They did have a government,
but the Austro Hungarian Empire was trying to maintain control
the last thing they wanted it was for democratic ideas

(01:36):
to be taught. But Omend did have a teacher who
taught her class about the Declaration of Independence, and he
thought it was the greatest document ever written. Another important
thing that happened in his life as he was growing
up in Bohemia is he was taught about the art
of lithography from his grandfather. The process was taking a

(02:00):
image and transferring that image onto a metal plate, which
sometimes is made out of zinc or some other materials,
and they would burn the image into the plate from a.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Negative, in this case a glass negative. They would shine
a light through.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
It and you'd lay down the ink, and the ink
would only adhere to where you wanted it ad here,
So in this case it would only adhere to the script.
And he mastered that skill set as his evidence by
the workmanship of what he created, which is arguably the

(02:37):
most lifelike replica of the Declaration of Independence ever made.
He basically created a replica of the Declaration as to
how it looked when it was signed, and how he
did that is pretty amazing. He eventually comes to America

(02:57):
in nineteen twelve at the age of twenty.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
He's a civil engineer.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
He's building roads and bridges, and he's also a map
maker by trade, so he used his lithographic skills to
make maps. He ends up meeting his wife in Keecock, Iowa.
He was building a road there. Her name was Georgia.
They had two kids, they had six grandchildren, and they

(03:23):
ended up making their home in Memphis, Tennessee. Eventually he
drives up to Washington, d C. To see the Declaration
in person. He was very excited, but when he got
there and he looked at it, he was actually shocked
at the condition it's in. It's worn, it's faded. Many

(03:44):
of the names of the signers can barely be read,
some of them can't be read. Some of the script
is very faded. So he goes back home to Memphis
and he decides to use his skills as a lithographer
to create what he ended up referring to as omens
authentic restoration.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Of the Declaration of Independence.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
He ends up finding and purchasing what's known as a
stone print. So William Stone made two hundred copies in
eighteen twenty three per the direction of James Monroe, who
was president at the time.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
It's believed It's.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Not known for sure, but when William Stone made those
two hundred copies, they believe he used a wet process,
which means he laid the document onto a copper plate
and when he drew it back, some of the ink
was peeled off. The original document you left onto the
copper plate. That's most likely what started the degradation of

(04:48):
the declaration.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
It's been missing.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
It was mishandled for many years, but that's most historians believe.
That's why it's in the shape it's in today, where
you can barely read some of the names of the signers.
He ended up finding in a little antique shop a
really interesting copy of the declaration and he bought it.
It ended up being a stone print. He did his
research and found out it was a stone print. So

(05:13):
that's what he used to perfect the script of his work.
Now that's one part of it. And if you see
a stone print, they're pretty boring. I mean, the script
is perfect, but there's no you know, the background isn't
the same as the original, and that's what Omen wanted
to create. He wanted to He knew that the original
was written on a piece of animal skin, and the

(05:35):
cracks and crevices are unique to that animal, So how
do you get the background match both the script and
the background. So he did some research and found out
there was a guy named Elsie Handy who took pictures
of the declaration outside his case in nineteen oh three.
So he went to Elsie Handy's widow and he purchased
the set of negatives from her.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Okay, and that's what.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Gave him the ability to recreate in its exact life
weakness the background of the decoration. So he used the
stone print to do the script. He used the LC
Handy negatives to get the background. When he was done
with the stone print, he actually donated it to the
Library of Congress, which is really amazing because it's those

(06:17):
are they're very valuable.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
There's only forty or fifty known in existence.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
He thought that the American people should have it, so
he did donate it back to the Library of Congress.
It took him probably I know it took him at
least five years to create this first masterpiece because the
glass negatives, glass positives, the crates that hold those plates
and the boxes actually have dates written on them that

(06:42):
are five years prior to when he actually printed his
works Omen did. After many years of work, a lot
of money, a lot of time, he ended up printing
about thirty thousand copies in nineteen to forty two of
again what he referred to as Omen's Authentic Restoration of

(07:02):
the Declaration of Independence, and he recouped some of his
some of the money he spent making it by selling
them to companies who would overprint their company name and
logo at the top, and then they would use them
as gifts for customers and clients, so he was able
to recoup some of the costs. When I purchased the collection,
there were only twelve hundred of his original lithographs of

(07:25):
the Declaration remaining. A few years after I against un
printing the Declaration, he started working on a replica of
the US Constitution, and I know that took him at
least four years, And that was really interesting what he
did there. He took all four pages of the US
Constitution and he shruck them down in size. He added

(07:47):
the Bill of Rights, which he printed at the bottom,
and he sized the entire piece to be very similar
to the size of the Declaration.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
And the reason he.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
Did that was so that they were tricle and they
were pleasing to the eye when you framed them and
hung them.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
On the wall. And a terrific job on the production,
editing and storytelling by our own Monte Montgomery and our
own Reagan Habib and a special thanks to Mike Hill.
He's the curator and overseer of the omen estate. And
what a story. This guy grows up on the Austria
Hungary Empire, but he had a teacher who taught him

(08:25):
about the Declaration of Independence, and from those thousands of
miles away he develops a deep, deep appreciation of the Declaration.
Comes to America in nineteen twelve civil engineer map maker,
but he used his lithograph skills to bring the Declaration
of Independence to life. When he went to DC, he
was horrified at the condition it was in. It had faded.

(08:49):
You could barely read the signers of the Declaration's signatures.
It took him years to create this masterpiece, and thank goodness,
he created thirty thousand of them and they live on
and now with the age of digital technology, people would say, oh, yawn,
But no, Yon, this was the life work of this man.

(09:10):
And out of appreciation for what our founders did back
in seventeen seventy six, The story of the immigrant who
created the best copy of the Declaration of Independence. Here
on our American stories.