News on 6
Sawyer Buccy
Just in time for your Independence Day celebrations, the only known surviving hand-written copy of the Declaration of Independence will be on display right here in Tulsa.
The Gilcrease Museum is just days away from opening the Celebrating American Independence: The Declaration of Independence.
It has been years since the museum has put the document on public display and it will up just in time for the fourth of July.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
These are the words that tie us all together.
“That is where it all started. It is our foundational document as a nation,” said Gilcrease Museum Curator of History Mark Dolph.
The words go beyond party lines and political debates.
“That we have these rights of freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that I think we perhaps take for granted,” said Dolph.
and starting next week, you will be able to see those words for yourself.
This isn’t the original Declaration of Independence. It is a hand-written copy. It is more than 200 years old and it has layers and layers of stories to tell.
“Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane were in Paris as representatives of the new United States of America and their mission there in Paris was to gain allies and support for our cause of independence,” said Dolph.
Gilcrease Museum Curator of History Mark Dolph says this document was used in 1777 as a diplomatic instrument.
“It is for the first time, literally saying to a foreign power we, the new United States of America here is our Declaration of Independence- here is why we are breaking the bonds with Great Britain,” said Dolph.
It is an irreplaceable piece of our nation’s history people will be able to see right here in Tulsa.
“I often wonder do we really reflect on why we are celebrating…This is an opportunity to remind ourselves how precious our freedoms are,” said Dolph.