A rare copy of the United States Declaration of Independence will go on display in London next year as part of an exhibition about the birth of the country. The show, Revolution 250: The Making Of The USA, is at the National Archives in Kew and will feature documents including a Dunlap print of the declaration, the Tea Act and the Treaty of Paris, which marked the end of the American War of Independence after Britain recognised the United States.

Dunlaps were the first official printings of the Declaration and take their name from John Dunlap, the Philadelphia printer whose name appears at the bottom of each copy. It is thought that about 200 copies were produced. In 2009, one Dunlap print was found in excellent condition among National Archives files by an American antiquarian bookseller. Before that discovery at Kew, a Dunlap print had been found at a flea market in 1989 and sold at auction in 2000 for 8.14 million dollars (£6.06 million). The Dunlap print due to be displayed at Kew was printed in Philadelphia on 4 July 1776.

National Archives historian and curator Dr Sean Cunningham said Revolution 250 will explore two pivotal decades that reshaped the world, tracing the rise and eventual fall of British power in America, with the Declaration of Independence at its heart. Saul Nasse, the archives’ chief executive, said the year will allow the gallery to showcase the unique documents in its collection and explore the birth of what is now the United States. Steve Burgess, the archives’ head of events and exhibitions, described Love Letters as offering a rare glimpse into personal emotions captured in a government collection. Revolution 250 opens on 23 May 2026 and runs until 29 November 2026 at the National Archives in Kew, south-west London. Love Letters opens on 24 January 2026 and runs until 12 April 2026 at the same site, centred on five centuries of correspondence, including Lord Alfred Douglas’s petition to Queen Victoria seeking Oscar Wilde’s release, a 1956 letter from Charles Kray defending his gangster songs, and Edward VIII’s Instrument of Abdication.