Collecting Signers of the Declaration - Delaware

Rosenbach Partner Desk exhibition for August 2026, featuring signers of the Declaration of Independence from Delaware. Image credit Bryn Michelson-Ziegler 

by Elizabeth Fuller, Librarian

When Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach popularized the collecting of American historical manuscripts in the early 20th century, he built on a practice initiated much earlier. As the Revolutionary generation was dying in the 1810s, biographers and historians began collecting documents written or signed by significant people involved in the conflict. Among the most sought-after subjects were individuals closely associated with great events, like the Declaration of Independence. Some collectors have attempted to acquire documents from each of its 56 signers, and about 40 such “Signers Sets” are known to exist today, mostly in institutions. Intimately familiar with the completist impulse of collectors, Dr. Rosenbach helped a number of his customers build their own sets and assembled one of his own. The Rosenbach Museum & Library now preserves a “Signers Set,” along with additional Revolutionary-era documents collected by our founder and other material acquired since his death.

In this 250th anniversary year, the Rosenbach brothers’ Partner Desk will host a changing selection of Signers’ documents, state by state. Together these documents offer glimpses not only of great Revolutionary events, but also of routine public and private business and the writers’ personal lives.

These documents from the three Delaware signers illustrate both routine events from their careers as colonial officials and more momentous events leading to and during the Revolution. We also present the story of another document from a Delaware signer that illustrates Dr. Rosenbach’s role in forming other collections and promoting interest in American history. Visit the website of the National Constitution Center for useful biographies of all 56 signers. 

Autograph letter signed by Thomas McKean. Image credit Bryn Michelson-Ziegler 

Delaware. General Assembly, Resolution
Wilmington, 9 May 1777
AMs 365/27
[Thomas McKean]

After the Delaware legislature received an attested copy of the Declaration from Congress, it adopted this resolution making it a part of the official records of the state to serve as “a lasting testimony of the approbation thereof.” McKean, who, like many of his fellow delegates, also held office in his home state while serving in the Continental Congress, signed this as Speaker of the Assembly.

Signature of Benjamin Franklin. Image credit Bryn Michelson-Ziegler

George Read (1733-1798), Autograph letter signed to John Dickinson
28 July 1766
AMs 542/18

Read and Dickinson studied law together and worked together frequently throughout their careers. This letter concerns familiar procedural headaches involving a suit in the Delaware courts: Dickinson had apparently forgotten that Read had confirmed the receipt of some documents; one of the parties had omitted to fill in part of his paperwork; and one party may delay the business again by not attending.

Autograph letter signed by Caesar Rodney. Image credit Bryn Michelson-Ziegler

Delaware. General Assembly. House of Representatives, Letter to an unidentified Virginia legislator
New Castle, Del., 25 October 1773
AMs 366/6
[Caesar Rodney]

In 1772, as opposition to the military occupation of Boston grew, Massachusetts towns and villages began forming Committees of Correspondence to disseminate information about information about British government actions and coordinate resistance. Other colonies soon followed suit, and the following year the Virginia House of Burgesses proposed intercolonial committees to further their collaboration. After Delaware’s House of Representatives established its committee, Rodney as its Speaker wrote to an unnamed Virginian to inform them of the fact and send a copy of the proceedings.

Christie, Manson & Woods, The Estelle Doheny collection from the Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library ... Part V: printed books and manuscripts including Americana ... Image credit Bryn Michelson-Ziegler 

Extra: Spotlight on Dr. Rosenbach’s dealing in Signers documents
Christie, Manson & Woods, The Estelle Doheny collection from the Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library ... Part V: printed books and manuscripts including Americana ...
New York : Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc., 1989
BC.A.d

This auction catalog reproduces and describes another notable document once owned by Dr. Rosenbach, a letter written by Caesar Rodney to his brother Thomas on 4 July 1776, alluding to a dramatic event in the voting for independence. The Delaware delegation was divided on the matter, Rodney and McKean being in favor and Read opposed. When Congress scheduled its debate on the question, Rodney was in Delaware on state business and McKean asked him to return to break the deadlock. Rodney rode 80 miles through a storm to reach Philadelphia in time to vote for independence.

Dr. Rosenbach bought it in 1926 at the sale of the collection of James H. Manning, which included many documents by signers. He offered for sale in several different catalogs, included it in exhibitions at the Company’s shop, and loaned it to the great historical traveling exhibition on the Freedom Train in 1947 (learn more by listening to this episode of the Rosenbach Podcast). He later sold it to Estelle Doheny, who gave her collection to the library at St John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California. In 1989 the collection was sold at auction to benefit the seminary’s primary mission of educating priests. The Rodney letter was eventually acquired by another collector specializing in the Declaration, Albert H. Small, whose collection is now at the University of Virginia.     

In August, the Rosenbach’s Partner Desk will showcase signers from Maryland.