A SET of historical documents belonging to the US will leave the country for the first time this year while on loan to Northern Ireland.
The files relate to the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence which took place at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadephia on August 2, 1776.
They will be shown in the ‘Voices Across the Atlantic: The Ulster Legacy in America’ exhibition which is due to open at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) later this year.
Within the papers are documents relating to Charles Thomson, originally from Gorteade, in Upperlands, Co. Derry, who was Secretary to the Continental Congress that formulated the Declaration.
Papers referring to Andrew Jackson, the seventh US President, whose parents hailed from Carrickfergus, are also contained in the files.
“I am delighted that my Department has secured the loan of some remarkable original documents that form an important part of America’s history,” Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said this week.
“They will be carefully transported across the Atlantic to feature in an exciting new exhibition celebrating the legacy created by the many thousands who left these shores for America in the late 1700s,” he explained
“This will be the first time in history that the documents have been on loan outside of the USA.”
Mr Lyons has previously visited the Library of Congress in Washington DC, where he viewed the documents first-hand in specialist storage.
“I encourage everyone to come along later in the year to explore these documents and much more,” he said.
“The exhibition in PRONI is one of the events that will help Northern Ireland commemorate the deep historical and ongoing connections that exist between here and the USA.”
Dr. Kevin Butterfield, Acting Chief of the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress, said they they were “happy” to play a role in this exhibition by “loaning materials that can help people in Northern Ireland learn more about the rich and complex history of the founding of the United States”.
“It’s a history shaped in important ways by people from Ulster, as these documents bring to life,” he added.
PRONI’s ‘Voices Across the Atlantic: The Ulster Legacy in America’ exhibition will open at the Titanic Quarter, Belfast this autumn.
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