How Salem Helped Spread the Declaration of Independence

SPONSORED CONTENT | Written by Destination Salem. Photographed by Jess Shada.

Step inside Peabody Essex Museum’s newest exhibition and you’ll find yourself surrounded by wooden printing presses, hand-set metal type, worn Revolutionary-era newspapers, and some of the earliest surviving printings of the Declaration of Independence.

During a year focused on both America’s 250th anniversary and Salem 400+, Pressing Importance: Salem and the Declaration of Independence tells a fascinating local story many visitors have never heard before: how Salem helped spread news of American independence in 1776.

Following the Declaration being signed in Philadelphia, the document needed to reach towns and cities across the colonies. In the summer of 1776, Salem printer Ezekiel Russell was working just down the street from where PEM stands today, using a hand-operated wooden printing press to produce copies of the newly approved Declaration of Independence.

Those early printings were never meant to last. They were posted in taverns and public spaces, folded into coat pockets, carried through town, and eventually discarded. Today, fewer than 100 surviving Declaration broadsides from that era are known to exist, making the documents on view at PEM extraordinarily rare.

Rather than presenting the story through rows of text panels alone, the exhibition fully immerses visitors in the world of colonial printing. PEM’s exhibition design team sets the scene before visitors even enter the gallery, with a dark clapboard exterior and a sign for “E. Russell Printing Office” that reimagines what Russell’s 18th-century shopfront might have looked like. Inside, wood textures, historic typefaces, and printing equipment inspired by the tools of the era continue the feeling of stepping into the world of colonial printing.

Throughout the gallery, visitors can get hands-on with cast metal type, explore examples of historic broadsides, and fold take-away pamphlets inspired by Revolutionary-era printing methods. Small details throughout the exhibition reveal the very human side of the printing process, from reused illustrations and uneven spacing to tiny imperfections in the type itself.

Looking closely, visitors can even spot an upside-down “S” accidentally printed in the word “Salem” on one broadside.

One of the exhibition’s most memorable ideas comes from realizing just how temporary these materials originally were. PEM curator Dan Lipcan compares broadsides to the “Instagram stories” of the 18th century: fast-moving forms of communication created for the moment, not necessarily for long-term preservation.

That context makes the surviving documents feel even more remarkable. Many still show visible folds, worn edges, stains, and signs of heavy handling that connect visitors directly to the people who once carried them through Revolutionary-era Salem streets.

The exhibition also explores the labor behind every printed page. Before anything could be printed, each individual letter, punctuation mark, and space had to be set by hand — backwards— into a printing frame. The process was time-consuming, highly skilled, and physically demanding, especially during a moment when printers were racing to spread urgent news as quickly as possible.

The exhibition closes with a contemporary reinterpretation of the Declaration by artist Mindy Belloff, who thoughtfully replaces the phrase “all men are created equal” with “all people are created equal,” inviting visitors to reflect on how the document’s meaning continues to evolve.

For Salem residents, first-time visitors, and longtime history lovers alike, Pressing Importance offers a chance to experience a different side of Salem history: one rooted not in myth or legend, but in the printed pages that helped shape a revolution.

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