Revisionist History

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As part of my trip to Philadelphia this weekend, I made sure to visit Independence Hall. While I enjoyed the opportunity to see the building in which so much of our fundamental history took place, one thing left a bad taste in my mouth, and it wasn’t the cheese steak. It was the tour guide.

Being myself no stranger to American history and having recently read about the events in preparation for my visit, I stood aghast at inaccuracies in her presentation. Here’s the actual timeline of events:

2 July 1776: Congress votes to adopt the revision of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence

4 July 1776: John Hancock and Charles Thompson affix their signatures to the document

2 August 1776: Most of the rest of the signatories sign the document

What did the tour guide say?

She says they voted on July 4^th to adopt the document but that nobody signed it until August. Has she ever heard of Google? Even the Wikipedia article does a better job at getting it right, and she was an official of the National Park Service.

What really irked me about it is that I applied for a vacancy here about a year ago but was turned down, ostensibly for my lack of knowledge. I’m sure they provide the guides with something to prepare them in guiding tours. Obviously this woman never bothered to read it, and all the people in our tour group (circa 50) went away befuddled as I or believing something inaccurate. For shame. Even I could do better than that.

Note: some of the congressional delegates never did sign the declaration. I wonder if they wish they had. The following image is proprietary: