Joseph Hewes, William Hooper, and John Penn signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1776. All three men were delegates of North Carolina at varying times between 1774-1777. The collection spans 1925-1926 and includes two photographic prints and two letter correspondence. The strength of the collection are the photographic prints of two of the three North Carolina Declaration of Independence Signers and biographical notes.
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed at Philadelphia by 56 people. Three of these signers included North Carolinians Joseph Hewes, William Hooper, and John Penn. Hewes was born in New Jersey and was a successful businessman and merchant. He represented North Carolina in the Provincial Congress and in the Continental Congress between 1774 and 1777. Hooper was a delegate to Continental Congress in 1775. Penn served in both the Provincial Congress and Continental Congress with Hooper and Hewes. There are photographic prints of Hewes and Hooper, but not of Penn.
Source:
National Archives https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
The collection contains materials from the North Carolina Historical Commission. In 1925, Fred A. Olds, collector for Hall of History under the NCHC, sent a letter that presents a set of Confederate and South Carolina currency to East Carolina Teachers' College, which later went on to become East Carolina University. In 1926, Olds presented photographic prints of portraits of Joseph Hewes and William Hooper, two North Carolina signers of the Declaration of the Independence at Philadelphia. With these prints, Olds also wrote biographical notes for the signers, and for the third signer John Penn, who did not have a portrait.
Transferred from University Archives, East Carolina University
Encoded by Mark Custer, March 20, 2008
Processed by Aleck Tan, February 2020
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.