First Issue of Aitken's Volume II of the "Journals of Congress" Complete the First Congressional Printing of the Declaration of Independence

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

[U.S. Continental Congress] Journals of Congress. Containing the Proceedings in the Year, 1776. Published by Order of Congress. Volume II.

Philadelphia: R. Aitken, 1777.

First edition, first issue of Volume II of the Journals of Congress with the rare Aitken imprint and the first Congressional printing of the Declaration of Independence (found on pages 241-246). Aiken took over the printing of the Journals from Bradford before the 1776 Bradford edition had reached the printing of the Declaration of Independence, thus making this the first. Octavo (8 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches; 222 x 140 mm). [2], 513, [22, index], [1, blank] pp.

Rebacked in old quarter parchment over contemporary drab boards. Pages uncut. Boards with some minor wear. Pages with some occasional and expected toning. Overall a very good copy.

"Robert Aitken was licensed by Congress to publish the Journals on 26 September 1776. Volume I of the series comprised reprints of his "Cartridge Paper" edition, the monthly issues which covered the first four months of 1776; the present volume II included the first publication of the June-December Journals, and came off the press the following year. According to Aitken, 532 copies were printed, but when Congress had to flee from Philadelphia in the autumn of 1777 Aitken's press was lost and many copies were seemingly left behind and destroyed by the British...The volume records some of the most tumultuous events of the Revolution, and the text of the Declaration appears in full, with the names of the signers, on pages 241-246." (From Bonhams).

In March of 1776, after the printers the Bradfords of Philadelphia's work of printing the previous transcripts of Congress were deemed unsatisfactory, "Robert Aitken now makes his first appearance upon the scene as a printer of Congressional proceedings. Beginning the work where the Bradfords left off, and without express order of Congress other than such sanction as he may have received from their printing committee, he published the Journals in monthly subdivisions from January to May, 1776, inclusive... Aitken had now found favor in the eyes of Congress, and on September 26, 1776 the committee appointed to superintend the publication of the Journals were instructed to employ him to reprint the Journals from the beginning, with all possible expedition, and to continue to print the same. The Congress agreed to purchase of him five hundred copies when printed, and Aitken was further directed to purchase from the Bradfords, on reasonable terms and at the expense of Congress, such parts of the Journal as they had printed but had not yet published. In pursuance of this order and under the supervision of the printing committee, Aitken, in the spring of 1777, issued what he termed a "New Edition" of the Journal of Congress in two volumes; the first containing the proceedings for 1774 and 1775 and the second those of 1776. This became the authoritative edition for those years and has always been followed whenever reprinted." (The Journals and Papers of the Continental Congress By Herbert Friedenwald, pg 15-17).

Pp.1-424 were later reissued as part of: ’Journals of Congress. .. Volume II’. York-Town [Pennsylvania], printed by John Dunlap, 1778. The Aitken imprint of this present copy is far more rare.

Evans 15684. ESTC W20602

HBS 68168.

$32,500.

Price: $32,500.00

Item #68168