The Declaration of Independence Project

Some of the biggest names in Hollywood including Michael Douglas, Whoopi Goldberg, and Mel Gibson recently took part in festivities kicking off the Declaration of Independence (DOI) Project in Philadelphia. The DOI began last summer when TV Producer Norman Lear and Internet pioneer David Hayden purchased for $8.14 million a recently discovered copy of the Declaration of Independence produced by Philadelphia printer John Dunlap on the night of 4 July 1776. Dunlap printed two hundred broadsides of the Declaration on large sheets that were circulated through the newly independent states to be posted in public. Twenty-four known copies are held by museums or in private collections. Lear's copy, the twenty-fifth, will tour the nation over the next three years as part of the DOI Project. The project's goal is to raise civic consciousness in America, especially among the younger generation, by getting citizens engaged in community life and ultimately taking part in the political process through voting. Wherever the Declaration travels, it will be accompanied by an exhibit that not only sets the document in its historic context, but also traces its impact on human rights struggles through time and around the world.

The Organization of American Historians has been invited to be a partner in the project along with the National Council for the Social Studies, National Council for History Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Archives, the Smithsonian Institution, and several dozen other national history, education, and civic organizations. Executive Director Lee Formwalt represented OAH at the DOI Project kickoff and press conference at the Jefferson Memorial on 3 July. The following day in Philadelphia, a host of Lear's celebrity friends proclaimed the Declaration of Independence in an evening concert on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Actors including Winona Ryder, Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, Kathy Bates, Edward Norton, Benicio Del Toro, and Ming-Na joined Douglas, Goldberg, and Gibson in a reading of the Declaration to a cheering crowd of more than one million people.

Lear's copy of the Declaration will next be displayed at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and eventually in each of the ten presidential libraries. It will also appear at the 2002 Winter Olympics Cultural Olympiad in Salt Lake City and at the main event, a day-long civic celebration on 4 July 2003, in New York City's Central Park. The main event is designed to be the "great Anniversary Festival" proposed for succeeding generations by John Adams in 1776, celebrated with "pomp and parades, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations." The New York City celebration will launch the second national tour of the Declaration that will last until the November 2004 election.

In Washington, Norman Lear thanked OAH members David McCullough and Daniel P. Jordan for their advice and consultation on the first stage of the project. Other OAH members will no doubt be consulted in the coming years for this national public history effort. With the already monumental support for the project from a wide variety of groups, the Declaration will undoubtedly continue, as Abraham Lincoln noted, to "give liberty not alone to people of this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time."