"Revolutionary Printing. July 4, 2026 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.." Promotional graphic for Revolutionary Printing event with UVA blue /cyan duotone photographs depicting the programs slated for the event. Includes photo of Small Special Collections Library and VA250, UVA, and UVA Library logos.

Join us on the Fourth of July for Revolutionary Printing—a free, family-friendly UVA250 celebration of the materials, crafts, and stories of the founding era.

Print your own copy of the Declaration of Independence, and view demonstrations of handmaking paper and mixing iron gall ink. Sign a giant copy of the Declaration, hear music of the American Revolution, or make a printer's hat. Create a custom silhouette, beadwork, sewing sampler, or screen print a keepsake to take home. History you can hold!

Small Special Collections Library
170 McCormick Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22904

Directions | Free event parking at Central Grounds Garage

Programs

Child standing proudly at the Common Press to show his recently pulled copy of the Declaration of Independence still on the platen.

Print the Declaration on the Common Press

A free timed ticket required (available via Eventbrite).
Print your copy of the Albert H. Small Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Independence with local printer Josef Beery on the UVA Library's Common Press, a full-size replica of an eighteenth-century press modeled after one that may have been used by Benjamin Franklin. Ages 5 and up. 

South Gallery, Small Special Collections Library 

Three children standing next to a BookBeetle Press; the youngest child holds a recently printed copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Print the Declaration on a BookBeetle Press

Walk-up / no ticket required!
Print your copy of the Dunlap broadside of the Declaration of Independence on a BookBeetle Press, a desktop letterpress based on the Common Press. Ages 5 and up. 

Main Gallery, Small Special Collections Library 

Freshly printed copies of the Dunlap broadside of the Declaration of Independence hanging to dry.

Paper- and Ink-Making Demonstrations

Walk-up / no ticket required!
Learn about paper-making and iron gall ink-making practices in the Revolutionary era with UVA Library conservators Sue Donovan and Brittany Murray. Practice writing with a quill and iron gall ink. While supplies last: take home a handmade paper sample! 

Lawn Tent (weather permitting), Small Special Collections Library 

Two silhouette portraits: Thomas Jefferson (left) and a young girl (right).

Silhouette Portraiture

Walk-up / no ticket required! 
Learn about silhouette portraiture by cutting and mounting a silhouette of a historical figure. Ages 5 and up. 

First Floor Gallery, Small Special Collections Library 

Blue duotone photo of an arm with beadwork bracelets

Storytelling with Beadwork

A free timed ticket required (available via Eventbrite).
Learn how to tell a story through beadwork incorporating the peyote stitch with Choctaw/Monacan beadwork artist Alicia Aldaz. Workshops at 11:15-12:45 and 1:30-3:00. Ages 12 and up. 

Seminar Room 318, Small Special Collections Library 

Image of a sewing sampler from the American Revolutionary era. Depicts sewn alphabet and numbers.

Historical Sewing Sampler

A free timed ticket required (available via Eventbrite).
Learn about sewing samplers, the Revolutionary-era way young women learned the basic needlework skills needed to support their households. Start your sewing sampler with a kit with local artist Lou Haney. Workshops at 11:15-12:15 and 1:30-2:30. Ages 10 and up. 

Seminar Room 318, Small Special Collections Library  

Photograph of Thomas Dean and Jeremy Taylor of Infinite Repeats making screen prints.

Screen Print a Revolutionary Printing Bag

Walk-up / while supplies last! 
Screen print a Revolutionary Printing bag with local artists Thomas Dean and Jeremy Taylor of Infinite Repeats. 

Auditorium, Small Special Collections Library  

Digitized version of Lafayette's copy of the Stone copy of the engrossed Declaration of Independence.

Sign the Declaration of Independence

Walk-up / no ticket required!  
Sign our giant facsimile Stone copy of the Declaration of Independence—add your "John Hancock" alongside the Revolutionary signers! 

First Floor Gallery, Small Special Collections Library  

Make a Printer's Hat

Walk-up / no ticket required!  
Make a special UVA250 commemorative printer's hat—a paper hat used by newspaper printers in the Revolutionary era to keep ink out of their hair when operating the printing press.

Front Porch, Small Special Collections Library  

Photo of David McCormick performing with a violin.

Hear the Music of the Revolution

Walk-up / as space available—performances at noon and 2 p.m. 
Hear the music of the American Revolution with Early Music Access Project's executive and artistic director, multi-instrumentalist David R. McCormick.  

Auditorium, Small Special Collections Library  

Graphic for Self-Evident exhibition poster featuring American Revolution era American flag with the handwritten text of the Declaration of Independence in a translucent overlay.

View Exhibition:
Self-Evident: The Ideas and Events that Shaped the Declaration of Independence 

Walk-up / no ticket required!  
Learn about the philosophers and writers who influenced Thomas Jefferson and other Committee of Five and Continental Congress members—and trace the early events of the American Revolution to understand the timing and ideals of the Declaration of Independence. 

First Floor Gallery, Small Special Collections Library  

Woodcut print depicting a city courtyard scene, with a man on a horse reading to people in the street, while others watch from open windows. A sign reading "America independent, 1776" is posted on the wall.

View Exhibition:
Declaring Independence: News of a New Nation 

Walk-up / no ticket required!  
In the years before independence, information moved through the American colonies via newspapers, pamphlets, handwritten letters carried by post riders and coastal ships, and conversations in public gathering places. Trace how news of the Declaration spread through the colonies, to England, and beyond in this special exhibition.

UVA Rotunda 

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