THE REAL THING: This original copy of the Declaration of Independence is among the treasures on display as part of the “Nursery of Rebellion” exhibit at Firestone Library April 15 through July 12.
By Anne Levin
Every time Michael Blaakman looks at the original copy of the Declaration of Independence at Princeton University’s Firestone Library, he is amazed.
“It never fails,” said Blaakman, associate professor of history at the University. “There are sources and documents you work with as a historian. Then there are documents that have that extra importance. And being in the presence of those is really special. It gets me every time.”
With the University’s Librarian for Early American Collections Gabriel Swift, Blaakman is the co-curator of “Nursery of Rebellion: Princeton and the American Revolution,” opening on April 15 at Firestone Library’s Milberg Gallery. The exhibit illuminates the world of Revolutionary Princeton with documents, paintings, letters, artifacts, objects, and accounts by those who witnessed the fighting and more. A second exhibition on the theme will open at the University’s Mudd Manuscript Library in May, delving deeper into the campus and student experience of the war.
The original copy of the Declaration of Independence, known as one of the “Dunlap Broadsides” printed on July 4, 1776, bookends the Milberg Gallery exhibition with an original copy of the U.S. Constitution. In between are some 100 pieces of history.
“We have the requisite cannonball,” said Blaakman. “We have a powder horn from the Seven Years’ War. We have a first edition of Common Sense. It’s a London copy with sentences omitted that are opposing the monarchy.”
Blaakman is particularly enthused about an account by Robert Lawrence, a lawyer in his eighties who was living in Princeton under the military occupation by the British. The exhibit includes two pages of his writings.
“He’s an ordinary Joe who talks about what the Revolution is about,” said Blaakman. “He lives through the Ten Crucial Days, and witnesses the Battle of Princeton. He has great lines like ‘Twenty-six days of tyranny by a pack of insolent poltroons.’ He talks about British soldiers making off with enslaved men.”
A self-described “archive rat” since his undergraduate days at the College of William and Mary, Blaakman has been at Princeton since 2018. “I love getting the 18th century dust on my hands,” he said. “The collection at Firestone is absolutely world class. To be right across the path, and be able to take students there, is very special.”
A signed copy of enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects: Religious and Moral is part of the exhibit, along with a published copy of her letter and poem to George Washington. Objects telling the story of three young Lenape men who came to study at the University during the Revolution are on display, with items on loan from the National Archives. There is correspondence between Washington and James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, as well as others including family members, friends, husbands and wives, militiamen, and students.
A painting of the Battle of Princeton by James Peale, brother of better-known artist Charles Wilson Peale, was hanging in a conference room at Firestone Library before it was moved to the Milberg Gallery for the show.
“It’s so unassuming at first glance,” said Blaakman. “We were in a meeting in the conference room, and didn’t realize until we stood up that it was right there in front of us. There are multiple Peales, and he’s one of the least accomplished. That’s part of the appeal — it’s kind of primitive.”
The Mudd Library exhibition, “Real and Remembered: Princetonians Caught Between Study and Revolution,” “will highlight how Princeton became a center of revolutionary thought and youthful activism following the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765,” reads a release. “The exhibition will highlight student voices as they protested British policies by wearing homespun clothing, wrote fiery Commencement orations, and famously burned tea in 1774.”
A lecture series at Robertson Hall accompanies the two shows, with 7 p.m. talks by noted authors on books related to the Revolutionary War. Zara Anishanslin discusses The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution on April 23. Serena Zabin talks about The Boston Massacre: A Family History on May 7. Next is Cynthia A. Kierner discussing The Tory’s Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America on June 4, followed by Robert Parkinson talking about Tyrants and Rogues: Understanding the Declaration of Independence on June 30.
“Nursery of Rebellion” is on view April 15 through July 12. “Real and Remembered” runs from May 21 through April 30, 2027.
For Blaakman, planning “Nursery of Rebellion” was “a labor of love,” he said. “The students are so excited about it. The Revolutionary era is fascinating, because it’s a period that is familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. The 18th century was weird and different. It truly is a foreign place in many regards, so fascinating to explore.”