Early American Documents Collection

This collection contains Colonial Era documents from a variety of donors and locations, including a scan of our 1776 German-language broadside of the Declaration of Independence, printed within days of July 4. Within this digital collection are scanned images of colonial American documents, as well as details and images of watermarks (where applicable). Most of the collection is dated between 1727-1728 and 1775-1787. The collection contains broadsides, manuscripts, and other material from the colonial era and early republic, with most being land and legal documents from Pennsylvania. The majority of material pertains to administration in colonial Philadelphia and the American Revolution.  Many of the court, petition, and survey documents concern the wards and organization of colonial Philadelphia. 1728 survey documents, Philadelphia Mayor correspondence for William Fishbourn and Thomas Lawrence, and documents published in German directed towards the German-speaking peoples in Pennsylvania, known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, are examples of the material that can be found within this collection.