In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson went to work drafting the Declaration of Independence. After some minor edits by others on the “Committee of Five,” it was ready to be presented to the Second Continental Congress. Jefferson likely read it aloud to the Congress on Friday, June 28. Not being as impressed as we are today with his words, the Congress ordered it to “lie on the table” while they attended to more pressing business.

After voting for independence on July 2, the Congress returned to Jefferson’s draft and started editing it. By July 4, they were done. The edited document may have then been signed by John Hancock as President of the Congress and attested as to its authenticity by Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the Congress. It was, for all intents and purposes, the original, official Declaration of Independence.

Someone from the Committee of Five, maybe even Jefferson himself, then took it that same July 4th day to a printshop a few blocks away in Philadelphia so that “broadside” copies could be printed and sent to the colonies and army announcing the newly-minted United States of America. The print job was ready the very next day, July 5. And then…they lost the document…that same day! A national treasure, lost in the fog of history.

What happened to that original, official declaration of independence? Where did it go? Does it still exist? The details of the lost original declaration of independence are covered in Episode 1 of the Frog of History.