06/16/2026
SEE WESTCHESTER’S ORIGINAL DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE!
The Declaration Distributed: Westchester County’s Holt Broadside of 1776
On view July 4 to December 20, 2026
The Declaration of Independence set forth in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, at the Second Continental Congress is sometimes misunderstood. Often thought of as a declaration of individual rights—one’s pursuit of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”—it is actually a list of grievances against the British Crown in the pursuit of separation.
In the United States we have come to celebrate July 4th as our nation’s Independence Day, but, in fact, only twelve of the thirteen colonies adopted the Declaration on that day. New York adopted the Declaration on July 9, 1776, and immediately engaged printer and publisher John Holt (1721-1784) to typeset and print their adoption in order the spread the word. The Holt Broadside in the collection of the Westchester County Archives is extremely rare, one of only a handful of sheets left from Holt’s print run.
The story told in The Declaration Distributed: Westchester County's Holt Broadside of 1776 is more than the story of the broadside. It is the story of a revolution in progress, a revolution unfinished. It is the story of the ways in which those revolutionary ideas spread through New York State by way of the Holt Broadside. The exhibition focuses on the document, its printer, the role of printing during the Revolution, the first reader of the document in New York State (who lived on the land where SUNY Purchase now stands), its whereabouts over the last 250 years, and current preservation efforts so that it will be with us for another 250 years.
The Declaration Distributed: Westchester County's Holt Broadside of 1776 at the Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY Purchase, is organized by Neuberger Director Tracy Fitzpatrick and made possible by Westchester County Government. Support for the project has been provided by the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art.
On View July 4 – December 20, 2026 The Declaration of Independence set forth in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, at the Second Continental Congress is...
