# @mdhistory on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CRHFho5pwn1
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/19780680-mdhistory-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/910c067787.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-07-09T15:02:08.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) (@mdhistory) — https://gondola.cc/mdhistory

## Caption

Last week one of two copies of the Declaration of Independence belonging to Charles Carroll of Carrollton sold at auction for a record $4.4 million to a private bidder. Where is the second copy? In the collection at the Maryland Center for History and Culture, where it has been preserved since 1844.
 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832) was born in Annapolis and served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776 and signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1820, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, via congressional resolution, commissioned William J. Stone to create an exact copy of the Declaration of Independence and provide two copies to every surviving signer of the original.
 
Engraved on a copper plate over a three year period and printed on vellum, Stone printed 201 copies in 1823. Carroll gifted his copy now in MCHC's collection to his grand-son-in-law John MacTavish, husband of Emily Caton who was the youngest daughter of Mary (Carroll) and Richard Caton.
 
At the bottom left corner of the copy in MCHC's collection is a handwritten note by Carroll himself that reads, “Presented to his friend John MacTavish, Esq. by the only surviving signer of this important state paper exactly half a century after having affixed his name to the original document. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Doughoregan Manor, 1826 August second.”
 
You can view this collection item at mdhistory.org/digital-collections and searching "Congress." 

Carroll's second copy of the Declaration of Independence had been unaccounted for nearly two centuries until it was recently found in a private home in Scotland. Freeman's auctioned the copy in Philadelphia on July 1. Read more about it at freemansauction.com.
 
 #MarylandHistory #MDHistory #DeclarationofIndependence #1776 #FoundingFathers #ContinentalCongress #CharlesCarroll #AmericanHistory #freemans

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## Tags

foundingfathers, charlescarroll, 1776, freemans, declarationofindependence, continentalcongress, mdhistory, marylandhistory, americanhistory

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