Constitution

1787 · Best.-Nr. 153385 — Philadelphia: Seddon Spotswood Cist and Trenchard 1787. Rare first periodical printing of the United States Constitution likely published within a week of its issuance as a broadside. Octavo disbound with a later string binding. The Constitution first appeared as a broadside followed quickly by its first newspaper appearance in The Pennsylvania Packet; later that same week it appeared in two magazines The Columbian Magazine and The American Museum and it remains unclear which of the two came first. The Columbian Magazine printed the Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787 on pages 659 to 665 under the title “The new plan for a Federal Government proposed by the Convention” together with the letter of George Washington transmitting the document from the Constitutional Convention to the Congress. In good condition with toning wear and chipping to the edges several leaves unopened including the Constitution leaves scattered soiling and foxing the meteorological table chipped at the left margin with some loss of text and the upper portion of the final leaf chipped away with loss not affecting the Constitution. Housed in a modern brown morocco pull-off case with chemise. Evans 20280. Mott A History of American Magazines I pp. 94-99. With the meteorological table and one of two plates lacking the View of the Natural Bridge in the State of Virginia. A rare and fragile survival of one of the earliest printings of the founding document of the United States. The Columbian Magazine published in Philadelphia from 1786 was among the earliest and most ambitious American monthly magazines mixing essays literature history and engraved plates. Its 1787 number carries one of the first printings of the United States Constitution which the Constitutional Convention had signed on September 17 of that year accompanied by George Washington’s letter transmitting the document from the Convention to the Congress. In the weeks after the signing the Constitution was rushed into print as a broadside in newspapers and in the new monthly magazines carrying the text to a public that would spend the following year debating and ratifying it and making these earliest appearances landmarks in the founding of the United States. Seddon, Spotswood, Cist, and Trenchard unknown