Description: This is an original EXTREMELY RARE printing of The United States Constitution, likely printed just days after the end of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. The Constitution was printed/published by Samuel and John Loudon in New York, NY as an addendum to Andrew Beers's The Columbian Almanack and Ephemeris for the Year of Our Lord, 1788. Publisher: Samuel Loudon was the founder and publisher of the New-York Packet and interesting figure in the American Revolutionary days. George Washington corresponded with Loudon during the Revolutionary War and asked him to pass along information through the New-York Packet regarding the army's location. Later, his newspaper was one of the four that published the Federalist Papers, essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay that helped convince New York to ratify The Constitution of the United States. He also served as the official printer of the State of New York and printed it's first Constitution. Notably, Loudon was also the post master at the state of New York's first post office, in Fishkill, NY. Further info on Samuel Loudon can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Loudon Scarcity: As noted above, this printing of The Constitution was attached as an addendum to The Columbian Almanack and Ephemeris for the Year of Our Lord, 1788. The publisher offered for sale the Almanack with or without the printing of The Constitution attached, making copies with The Constitution particularly scarce. In fact, the fine arts company Sotheby's noted in 2023 that they "trace no copy at auction or in the trade since Goodspeed's offered a copy in 1946 in their catalogue 408." Date of Publication: After the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention ended, there were local newspapers in Philadelphia, PA that printed the text of The Constitution on Wednesday, September 19th, 1787. According to Leonard Rapport (of The National Archives) in his publication on the topic of early printings of The Constitution, he lists this printing under the date of Friday, September 21, 1787. This is only two days later than the earliest newspaper printings of The Constitution. More info can be found on this at: https://csac.history.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/281/2020/02/rapport-full-article-.pdf Condition: There is some browning, staining, slight tears, small tape residue, creasing, and there is a signature on back page (William Mey?) that appears to be concurrent with the era of the printing. If you have any questions, comments or additional information regarding this listing, please feel free to reach out to me about this. I have strived to uncover as much as I can about this important document and to present what I know about it in a clear and straightforward way. Thank you.
Price: 30000 USD
Location: Duluth, Minnesota
End Time: 2024-09-28T20:18:55.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Binding: Stab Sewn
Place of Publication: New York, NY
Signed: No
Publisher: Samuel and John Loudon
Subject: Government
Original/Facsimile: Original
Year Printed: 1787
Unit Type: Unit
Language: English
Special Attributes: Manuscript, Original, Vintage, Antique
Author: James Madison
Region: North America
Personalized: No
Topic: The Constitution
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States