A representative from the Westchester County Archives delivered a detailed presentation on the county's rare copy of the Declaration of Independence, known as the Holt Broadside, during a meeting on May 6, 2026, at 7:00 PM. The presentation covered the document's history, preservation efforts, and an upcoming public exhibit.
The Westchester County Archives has a really interesting and rare document called the Declaration of Independence. You might have heard of it. This copy specifically, the story goes, is that it was read aloud on the court steps of the White Plains Courthouse on July 9th, 1776. It's called the Halt Broadside because the printer's name was John Holt in New York City. So he was one of the first ones that printed 500 copies at the time. And the funny thing with the broadside is I kind of refer to as the Twitter of the day because this was kind of how they would get the information out. This would have been very big news at the time. Everyone would have been called to the courthouse. It would have been read aloud and in verbatim the entire thing. In terms of monetary value, it's it's priceless. But in terms of insurance purposes, we actually had the document appraised by a local appraiser named Stuart Lutz, who is on the show porn stars. And he gave it a retail replacement value of two point two million. This copy is one of five surviving copies. And they are building a case that is going to be environmentally controlled. The encasement is the most important thing right now for the Declaration of Independence. Encasement filled with Argon and Helium. Inert gases helps the preservation of this document. And it will also have ultraviolet glass donated by Eastman and has advanced technology system. It's very it's very cool that we live in a time now with technology that we can create a case that has its own little environment in it and it's able to be movable and you can take it places. Because they are the only ones in the country that have the background and the knowledge of creating that exact case as they have in the Smithsonian and African American museum as well. It went through so many different channels and so much hard work to make sure that it is protecting. For me, it's I feel very honored to be able to work with this document and to have the privilege of being one of the caretakers of it. It's like you in awe. Like of a part of history. The Westchester County Archives has a really interesting and rare document called the Declaration of Independence. You might have heard of it. This copy specifically, the story goes, is that it was read aloud on the court steps of the White Plains Courthouse on July 9th, 1776. It's called the Halt Broadside because the printer's name was John Holt in New York City. So he was one of the first ones that printed 500 copies at the time. And the funny thing with the broadside is I kind of referred it to as the Twitter of the day because this was kind of how they would get the information out. This would have been very big news at the time. Everyone would have been called to the courthouse. It would have been read aloud and in verbatim the entire thing. In terms of monetary value, it's it's priceless. If something ever happens to it, can't go back in time to 250 years ago and get the document back. But in terms of insurance purposes, we actually had the document appraised by a local appraiser named Stuart Lutz, who is on the show pawn stars, and he gave it a retail replacement value of 2.2 million. This copy is one of five surviving copies. And our copy is actually in really good shape for being 250 years old at this point. Now we're actually able to do something with it through NIST, which is the National Institute of Standards and Technology down in Washington, DC. And they are building a case that is going to be environmentally controlled. The encasement is the most important thing right now for the Declaration of Independence. It will be housed an aluminum and titanium encasement filled with argon and helium. Inert gases helps the preservation of this document. And it will also have ultraviolet donated by Eastman and has an advanced technology system. NIST actually monitors this continuously, making sure there's no leaks. It's very, it's very cool that we live in a time now with technology that we can create a case that has its own little environment in it and it's able to be movable and you can take it places. So much hard work to make sure that it is protected. For me, it's I feel very honored to be able to work with this document and to have the privilege of being one of the caretakers of it. And you know here in Westchester, one of the big things we're doing with our Declaration of Independence is the Newburger Museum is putting on an exhibit with Westchester 250 about the actual the revolution and the 250th celebration. To have the document visible and be available to the public to bring the school kids and show them in person, I think it will be a really great thing for Westchester.