Declaration of Independence

We see Thomas Jefferson and his editorial committee standing in the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House (now Philadelphia’s Independence Hall) on June 28, 1776. They present a draft of the Declaration of Independence to John Hancock, president of the Second Continental Congress. The document would be adopted on July 4 and signed on August 2. Forty-two of the original signers and six additional patriots appear in Trumbull’s image. He began the related painting under Jefferson’s guidance in Paris in 1786 and insisted on depicting as many figures from life as possible, which delayed completion until 1820. Forty-eight men are portrayed—forty-two of the fifty-six signers, plus six other patriots who contributed to the historic process. Trumbull’s determination to include only authoritative likenesses meant that a few Congressional delegates had to be excluded. He based the interior on a sketch that Jefferson made from memory in Paris, then enhanced the furnishings and added a cluster of British flags at the back—intended as battle trophies pointing to patriot victories. Durand, one of America’s first master engravers—and later a leading landscape painter—took three more years to complete the print which helped to cement the image’s significance as an icon of the American Revolution.