BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Newseum -- Exhibits -- (5) 1776 -- Breaking News: Independence

DC -- Newseum -- Exhibits -- (5) 1776 -- Breaking News: Independence:

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Description of Pictures: PULLIAM FAMILY HISTORY OF LIBERTY GALLERY: “1776 — BREAKING NEWS: INDEPENDENCE”
OPEN THROUGH 2017
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress — made up of delegates from all 13 Colonies — adopted the Declaration of Independence. Two days later, The Pennsylvania Evening Post became the first newspaper to publish the declaration. On display in this compelling exhibit is one of only 19 known copies of the historic newspaper. This rare printing shows the declaration as Americans first saw it — as front-page news.
Featuring illustrated graphics and interactive kiosks that allow visitors to examine the newspaper in great detail, the exhibit tells the story of what led delegates from all 13 Colonies to adopt the Declaration of Independence. Some of the most tumultuous and trying chapters in American history are highlighted, including the Stamp Act, the Boston Tea Party and news of war erupting from the battles of Lexington and Concord.
As the United States celebrates the 240th anniversary of its independence from Great Britain, the exhibit explores how news of freedom spread through the Colonies and abroad and played a crucial role in uniting American colonists behind the cause of independence.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. NEWS76_160709_143.JPG: 2. "Horrid Massacre" After British soldiers killed five Americans in Boston in March 1770, town leaders distributed a pamphlet condemning the attacks titled "A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre".
2. NEWS76_160709_152.JPG: 2 'Horrid Massacre' Newspapers sensationalize Boston Massacre March 5, 1770 British troops have occupied Boston for 17 months to quell the growing rebellion. Their presence inflames tensions, which turn deadly on this icy night.
3. NEWS76_160709_157.JPG: A fight breaks out between a British guard and a mob of snowball and rock-throwing colonists. British soldiers fire into the crowd, killing five Americans. The first to die is runaway slave Crispus Attucks.
4. NEWS76_160709_161.JPG: The deeply partisan colonial press sensationalizes the facts to fuel anger against the British. Colonial writer and revolutionary firebrand Samuel Adams uses the killings to provoke outrage. Such an instance of savage barbarity there undoubtedly was. A masterful propagandist, he writes explosive essays in the Boston Gazette and brands the clash a "massacre."
5. NEWS76_160709_163.JPG: He organizes a public funeral for the victims attended by 10,000 people -- more than half the population of Boston.
6. NEWS76_160709_167.JPG: Adams urges silversmith Paul Revere to create an engraving of the massacre. Revere's distorted depiction of a line of British soldiers following orders to fire on innocent Americans comes to define the event.
7. NEWS76_160709_172.JPG: The Gazette publishes an illustration of the victims' coffins and a bitter attack of British brutality. Newspapers beyond Boston circulate exaggerated accounts of the bloodshed, and outrage against Britain intensifies.
8. NEWS76_160709_178.JPG: The Speed of News in 1776 Printing the News: Newspaper printing was a laborious process in 18th-century America. Most newspapers were just four pages long and published once a week. Metal type was set by hand -- letter by letter, backwards, reading from right to left. Typesetting a single issue took at least 24 hours. Ink was applied to the type using deerskin "daubers," and the inked pages were hung up to dry overnight. Newspapers rarely contained illustrations or headlines but were crammed with advertisements, local and world news, essays and legal notices. Distributing the News: Today, news travels instantly via text or tweet. But in 1776,news ould take days or weeks to reach readers. Newspaper carriers -- who often doubled as printers' apprentices -- delivered newspapers locally. Post riders of horseback trekked across rough roads to deliver newspapers to other towns. It took two days for post riders to reach New York from Philadelphia and three to six weeks to travel from one end of the Colonies to the other. Newspapers took at least six weeks to travel to Britain via "packet ships" -- ships designed to carry mail. A Wider Reach: By 1776, the American Colonies were the most literate society in the world. Some three-quarters of white men and nearly half of white women could read and write, and 30 newspapers fed the public's growing appetite for news. The average newspaper sold 600 copies a week, but its reach was far greater. Read aloud and discussed in homes, taverns and coffeehouses, newspapers reached not only lawyers and merchants but also laborers, women and slaves. Mailing the News: Newspapers depended on a robust postal system to reach readers. During his two decades as postmaster general, Benjamin Franklin improved routes and halved delivery times between major cities. In 1756, Franklin began allowing publishers to mail copies of their newspapers to each other for free. This fostered an 18th-century version of the modern news wire, as publishers reprinted items from other newspapers to fill their pages. With the same reports appearing in newspapers across America, colonists separated by many miles were bound together by the printed word.
9. NEWS76_160709_184.JPG: The Speed of News in 1776 Printing the News: Newspaper printing was a laborious process in 18th-century America. Most newspapers were just four pages long and published once a week. Metal type was set by hand -- letter by letter, backwards, reading from right to left. Typesetting a single issue took at least 24 hours. Ink was applied to the type using deerskin "daubers," and the inked pages were hung up to dry overnight. Newspapers rarely contained illustrations or headlines but were crammed with advertisements, local and world news, essays and legal notices. Colonial printers used wooden hand presses to spread news of revolution.
10. NEWS76_160709_185.JPG: Distributing the News: Today, news travels instantly via text or tweet. But in 1776,news ould take days or weeks to reach readers. Newspaper carriers -- who often doubled as printers' apprentices -- delivered newspapers locally. Post riders of horseback trekked across rough roads to deliver newspapers to other towns. It took two days for post riders to reach New York from Philadelphia and three to six weeks to travel from one end of the Colonies to the other. Newspapers took at least six weeks to travel to Britain via "packet ships" -- ships designed to carry mail. Front-page newspaper titles in Colonial America often featured illustrations to post riders and packet ships -- two ways news was delivered.
11. NEWS76_160709_189.JPG: A Wider Reach: By 1776, the American Colonies were the most literate society in the world. Some three-quarters of white men and nearly half of white women could read and write, and 30 newspapers fed the public's growing appetite for news. The average newspaper sold 600 copies a week, but its reach was far greater. Read aloud and discussed in homes, taverns and coffeehouses, newspapers reached not only lawyers and merchants but also laborers, women and slaves. Colonists read, discussed and debated the news in coffeehouses.
12. NEWS76_160709_195.JPG: Mailing the News: Newspapers depended on a robust postal system to reach readers. During his two decades as postmaster general, Benjamin Franklin improved routes and halved delivery times between major cities. In 1756, Franklin began allowing publishers to mail copies of their newspapers to each other for free. This fostered an 18th-century version of the modern news wire, as publishers reprinted items from other newspapers to fill their pages. With the same reports appearing in newspapers across America, colonists separated by many miles were bound together by the printed word. Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin's improvements to the mail system helped speed the flow of news in Colonial America.
13. NEWS76_160709_202.JPG: 3. "The Detestable Tea" When British ships loaded with tea priced to undercut Colonial tea merchants arrived in Boston in 1773, broadsides were posted throughout the city decrying "that worst of Plagues, the Detestable Tea ship'd for this Port by the East India Company."
14. NEWS76_160709_207.JPG: 3 'The Detestable Tea' Printer plots the Boston Tea Party December 16, 1773 Three British ships loaded with tea from the East India Company -- a powerful monopoly backed by Parliament -- are anchored in Boston Harbor. Colonists are furious about the Tea Act, a British government bailout designed to boost sales for the struggling East India Company at the expense of colonial tea merchants. Benjamin Edes and partner John Gill publish the Boston Gazette, one of the most scathing anti-British newspapers in the colonies. Edes and his fellow Sons of Liberty plot a rebellion.
15. NEWS76_160709_211.JPG: They head to the Gazette offices, where they disguise themselves as Indians with war paint and feathers... Before setting out for Boston Harbor, dozens of men board the British tea ships... And empty 243 chests of tea overboard.
16. NEWS76_160709_215.JPG: Edes publishes reports of the protest -- later known as the Boston Tea Party -- that are reprinted throughout the colonies. A vengeful Parliament punished Massachusetts with the Coercive Acts of 1774. The laws reduce the colonists' right to meet freely and try to choke Boston commerce by closing the port. Printers rally to unite Americans in defiance. Some revive Benjamin Franklin's famous "Join, or Die" snake cartoon -- created during the French and Indian War -- to urge colonial unity. Others call for the colonies to convene a continental congress, which meets in Philadelphia that fall. With relations at an all-time low, Britain and the colonies are on the brink of war.
17. NEWS76_160709_220.JPG: A Partisan Press: Many Americans complain that today's news media is polarized, but bias in the press is nothing new. Neither fair nor objective, Colonial printers took sides, stretched the facts and sometimes published lies. As revolutionary fervor grew, so the intensity of exaggerated or false accounts of British cruelty. Tales of barbaric British soldiers pillaging the countryside were common. Patriot printers viciously berated Loyalist printers who supports the British Crown -- and vice versa. At times, the newspaper wars grew violent, with mobs attacking the publishers they opposed. The Providence Gazette falsely accused British troops of robbing American graves in a sensationalized 1778 report: "Our Neighbours, the British savages on Rhode Island, we learned by several Persons from thence, have given fresh proof that they are more savage than their Brethren of the Wilderness." In 1776, an anonymous essayist raised the alarm about the dangers of splitting with Britain in The Virginia Gazette: "Our fertile fields will be deluged with blood, our wives & children be involved in the horrid scene; foreign powers will step in and share in the plunder that remains."
18. NEWS76_160709_223.JPG: Reporting the War: Because journalists rarely traveled to the front lines, battlefield reports in newspapers often relied on rumors and hearsay, and were often weeks out of date. Many publishers struggled to survive the war. With supplies of type, paper and ink from Britain cut off, printers called on readers to do their patriotic duty by donating rags to make paper. Amid threats of violence, some printers switched sides; others fled to avoid having their print shops wrecked. But during the eight-year war, newspapers united both soldiers and civilians against a common enemy and boosted morale during times of defeat. Publishers from 1776 to 1783, patriot pamphleteer Thomas Paine's "American Crisis" essays were designed to boost civilian and soldier morals during the war. Gen. George Washington had them read to his troops. This 1780 ad in The Massachusetts Spy urged women to serve their country by donating rags to make paper.
19. NEWS76_160709_228.JPG: 4. "Bloody News" Two days after the Revolutionary War erupted in Lexington and Concord, Mass., The New-Hampshire Gazette announced the battle with the bold words "BLOODY NEWS" -- a rare use of a headline in Colonial newspapers.
20. NEWS76_160709_235.JPG: 4 'Bloody News' War erupts at Lexington and Concord April 16, 1775 Isaiah Thomas, 26, one of the Sons of Liberty and the publisher of the Massachusetts Spy, fears for his life. Late at night, he moves his family and his printing presses out of Boston for safety. With 3,500 readers, the Spy is among the most-read newspapers in the colonies. The British have vowed to execute Thomas for his fiery defense of colonial liberty.
21. NEWS76_160709_241.JPG: The Sons of Liberty are tipped off that British troops are headed to Concord, Mass., to seize weapons the colonists have been stockpiling. Paul Revere warns colonists that British troops are approaching. The Regulars are coming out!
22. NEWS76_160709_243.JPG: Disperse, you damned rebels! Thomas is in Lexington before dawn on April 19, as British soldiers confront colonial militiamen.
23. NEWS76_160709_246.JPG: A musket shot rings out -- BANG!
24. NEWS76_160709_249.JPG: No one knows who fired first, causing a chaotic exchange of gunfire. More fighting breaks out in Concord and along the route to Boston as the British retreat. By day's end, 73 British soldiers and 49 Americans lie dead or dying. On May 3, Thomas publishes his famous eyewitness account of the battle that launched the American Revolution. "Americans, forever bear in mind the Battle of Lexington! Where British troops, unmolested and unprovoked, wantonly, and in a most inhuman manner fired upon and killed a number of our countrymen, then robbed them of their provisions, ransacked, plundered and burnt their houses!"
25. NEWS76_160709_253.JPG: On May 3, Thomas publishes his famous eyewitness account of the battle that launched the American Revolution. "Americans, forever bear in mind the Battle of Lexington! Where British troops, unmolested and unprovoked, wantonly, and in a most inhuman manner fired upon and killed a number of our countrymen, then robbed them of their provisions, ransacked, plundered and burnt their houses!" It takes six weeks for news of the war to reach all 37 newspapers in America. Colonial printers blame the British for the attack. Massachusetts leaders order a ship to set sail for London. The only cargo: newspapers reporting that the colonies are at war with Britain.
26. NEWS76_160709_257.JPG: America's Revolutionary Publishers Isaiah Thomas: Radical Patriot Patriot printer Isaiah Thomas was burned in effigy and twice threatened with assassination for his paper's scathing anti-British propaganda. The Massachusetts Spy, which he started when he was 21, boasted one of the highest circulations in the Colonies due to its low price and plain language. Risking his print shop and his life, Thomas published incendiary articles railing against British tyranny. Secretly, he printed handbills for the Sons of Liberty, the rebel society that often met in his print shop at night. Because of his famous eyewitness account of the Battle of Lexington, some consider Thomas America's first war correspondent.
27. NEWS76_160709_265.JPG: James Rivington: Lying Loyalist Publisher James Rivington was repeatedly targeted for his harsh criticism of independence in the widely circulated Rivington's New York Gazetteer. Branded as "dirty," "malicious" and "a Judas" by the patriot press, Rivington sailed to England in 1775 after a mob destroyed his printing equipment and melted his types of make ammunition. Returning to New York two years alter and the king's official printer, he spread false stories of infighting and financial trouble in the Continental Army. In a surprising twist, Rivington may have spied for the patriots in the early 1780s, gathering valuable British military secrets in the coffeehouse he owned and passing them to Gen. George Washington.
28. NEWS76_160709_273.JPG: Benjamin Towne: Turncoat Publisher Pennsylvania Evening Post publisher Benjamin Towne was the first to print the Declaration of Independence in a newspaper. At the time, Towne was an ardent patriot. But when the British army occupied Philadelphia in 1777 and most patriot printers fled, he simply changed his politics. When the British evacuated in 1778, Towne again declared his allegiance to the American cause. But his shifting loyalties cost him friends and readers. In 1779, a mob placed a noose around Towne's neck until he revealed the author of an attack on a patriot pamphleteer. In 1783, Towne briefly published under the name The Pennsylvania Evening Post and Daily Advertiser, which became the first daily newspaper in America, but the publication folded the following year.
29. NEWS76_160709_275.JPG: 5. "'Tis Time to Part" "The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cried, 'TIS TIME TO PART," wrote Thomas Paine in "Common Sense," his influential pamphlet advocating separation from Britain.
30. NEWS76_160709_279.JPG: 5 ''TIS TIME TO PART' Immigrant writer stirs revolutionary fervor January 10, 1776 Just a year after arriving in America poor, uneducated and so sick with typhus he had to be carried off the ship... English immigrant Thomas Paine creates a sensation by publishing a pamphlet called Common Sense. Every thing that is right or natural pleads for separation.
31. NEWS76_160709_282.JPG: In plain and simple prose, Paine boldly attacks the British monarchy and urges the colonies to establish a democratic nation. Many writers have criticized Britain, but few have dared to call for American independence. Boiling with treasonous content, the pamphlet is published anonymously. "The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'Tis time to part." Common Sense is an instant best-seller, 75,000 pamphlets sell within months and newspapers across the colonies reprint it. Most literate Americans read all or part of Paine's essay.
32. NEWS76_160709_296.JPG: Printers loyal to the British are not persuaded. Is this Common Sense of common nonsense. New York packet printer Samuel Loudon plans to publish an attack on Common Sense, but a mob breaks into his house, drags him out of bed... And destroys his printing equipment. Common Sense hardens the colonists' resolve to break from Britain, paving the way for the Declaration of Independence six months later.
33. NEWS76_160709_298.JPG: 6. "Independent of That Monster" Editor Isaiah Thomas celebrated news of independence in The Massachusetts Spy on July 10, 1776: "It is reported that the Honorable Continental Congress have declared the American colonies INDEPENDENT of that Monster of Imperious domination and cruelty -- Great Britain!"
34. NEWS76_160709_305.JPG: 6 'Independent of That Monster' Breaking news: Independence! July 2, 1776 Public demand for separation from Britain is overwhelming. After a year of war, the Continental Congress votes to declare independence. It is an act of high treason against the mighty British empire. Benjamin Towne, publisher of Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Evening Post, is the first to report the vote that same day. Stop the press! He literally stops his press to publish the late-breaking news. Two days later, Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence -- drafted by Virginia delegate Thomas Jefferson -- and orders that it be distributed throughout the new nation.
35. NEWS76_160709_310.JPG: 6 'Independent of That Monster' Breaking news: Independence! July 2, 1776 Public demand for separation from Britain is overwhelming. After a year of war, the Continental Congress votes to declare independence. It is an act of high treason against the mighty British empire. Benjamin Towne, publisher of Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Evening Post, is the first to report the vote that same day. Stop the press! He literally stops his press to publish the late-breaking news.
36. NEWS76_160709_312.JPG: Two days later, Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence -- drafted by Virginia delegate Thomas Jefferson -- and orders that it be distributed throughout the new nation.
37. NEWS76_160709_314.JPG: Throughout that night, 29-year-old Philadelphia printer John Dunlap prints hundreds of broadsides, posters that are sent to state assemblies, military commanders and King George III. On July 6, The Pennsylvania Evening Post is the first newspaper to publish the declaration in full.
38. NEWS76_160709_318.JPG: Two days later, the first public reading is held in Philadelphia. The declaration is read aloud on street corners and in taverns and churches across America. Gen. George Washington has the declaration read to troops defending New York City from a British invasion. "When in the course of human events..."
39. NEWS76_160709_330.JPG: A mob destroys a statue of King George III in Manhattan and melts it down to create 42,000 musket balls. Within a month, 30 newspapers from New Hampshire to South Carolina publish the declaration. The news doesn't reach London until mid-August. As word of independence spread, America's fight for freedom takes on a new level of urgency.
40. NEWS76_160709_331.JPG: The Declaration's Lasting Legacy
41. NEWS76_160709_335.JPG: After eight years of bitter war, Americans win their freedom from Britain in 1783 and set about establishing a new government, founded on the ideals of liberty laid out in the Declaration of Independence. Never before in history have colonies successfully cast off their mother country. The declaration leaves an impact far beyond the signers' intentions.
42. NEWS76_160709_338.JPG: In the United States, its language of equality fuels the struggle to end slavery... Ad the fight for women's rights... Civil rights and gender equality. From the French Revolution to Tiananmen Square...
43. NEWS76_160709_342.JPG: The declaration inspires people seeking democracy around the world. 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, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. More than two centuries after it was news, the declaration lives on, its immortal words and themes invoked in struggles for freedom worldwide. All newspaper images; Newseum collection All illustration by Tomasz Kaczynski
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