The AC Digs Into: The Misadventures of a Stolen American Relic
July 4, 2020
July 4, 2020
As the Confederacy crumbled in early 1865, the city of Raleigh was overcome by an atmosphere of upheaval. Amidst the chaos of the changing times, the secretary of state’s office in the North Carolina State House was essentially left unguarded—a fact not lost on some Union infantrymen, who saw this as an opportunity to rummage through the office files and collect some spoils of war. Among the “prizes” claimed by these soldiers? North Carolina’s original copy of the Bill of Rights—one of just 14 original copies prepared by the 1st United States Congress.
Thus began this document’s century-long odyssey, which was chronicled and published by David Howard in his book, “Lost Rights: The Misadventures of a Stolen American Relic.” Howard joined Antiquities Coalition Founder and Chairman Deborah Lehr in an online webinar on June 30 for an exclusive conversation about “Lost Rights,” described by Dallas Morning News as a “down-and-dirty tour of the murky, sometimes ethically ambivalent universe of the high-dollar historic document trade.”
Key takeaways included:
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