DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE DESK — BROWN 461 



It does not seem from this statement that Thomas Jefferson Coolidge 

 could possibly have given Bismarck the desk in 1896, only 3 years 

 before, and not have remembered it at this time. 



The publicity accorded the Bismarck desk brought to light another 

 replica owned by a doctor in Berryville, Va., who had also assumed 

 that he had the original desk. He said it had been presented to him 

 by a patient in Alexandria, Va., and that the desk had been in the 

 possession of the patient's family for a great many years. Comparison 

 of this desk with the desk in the National Museum revealed that the 

 drawer of the Berryville desk opened on the opposite side from the 

 drawer in the original desk. The writing surface of the replica was 

 covered with red felt rather than green baize. 



A third replica is today at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home at 

 Charlottesville, Va. Fiske Kimball, chairman of the Restoration 

 Committee of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, says that 

 the desk at Monticello came many years ago, at the time Stuart 

 Gibboney was president of the foundation. They do not have any 

 record today of the source of the replica. 



The Smithsonian Institution recently had an opportunity to exam- 

 ine one of these replicas closely when it was brought to the National 

 Museum for comparison with the original desk. At first glance the 

 replica seemed to be identical with the Museum desk. Closer inspec- 

 tion revealed that the wood of the original was slightly darker in 

 appearance. The metal fittings of the replica, such as the hinges, the 

 screws in the hinges, and the lock did not match exactly the handmade 

 fittings of the Museum desk. To all appearances the manuscript notes 

 on the two desks were identical. The Library of Congress Division of 

 Manuscripts was not able to explain the process by which these notes 

 had been made without removing the note from one of the replicas. 

 This last desk had been obtained from an old New England family, 

 and, again, it had been assumed by the family that the desk was the 

 original Declaration of Independence desk. 



Making souvenir relics of the founders of our country was a well- 

 established practice throughout the nineteenth century. It was 

 especially popular about the time of the centennial celebration of 

 the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1876, when millions 

 of souvenirs were copied from all types of articles that had historical 

 associations. In view of the accuracy with which the original desk is 

 copied, it is reasonable to believe that the Coolidge family had repro- 

 ductions of the desk made before it was turned over to the President 

 of the United States in 1880. It is even possible that each of the four 

 donors had copies of the desk made and that more of these replicas 

 are in existence than we suppose. It is hoped that the continuing 

 research by the staff of the National Museum will eventually uncover 



