Theodore Ohman was taught the Declaration of Independence by a schoolteacher in Bohemia while the Austro-Hungarian Empire still ruled — an empire that did not want democratic ideals discussed. He thought it was the greatest document ever written. He learned lithography from his grandfather, came to America in 1912, and when he finally saw the original Declaration in Washington he was shocked: faded, torn, some signers' names barely readable. So he went home to Memphis and rebuilt it. He found one of the roughly 40 surviving William Stone prints from 1823 to perfect the script, bought the 1903 L.C. Handy glass-plate negatives from the photographer's widow to capture the parchment itself, and spent years at an eyepiece placing every letter. He printed his Declaration in 1942, his Constitution with the Bill of Rights in 1953, and then spent 25 years driving town to town, selling sets to hometown banks so every school in the district could hang them.
Mark Hill owns the Ohman collection today. Hear the full story, then put these documents in your own local school with promo code JENNY at BigParty250.com.
Watch the full episode at jennybethshow.com. Learn more about Tea Party Patriots Action at teapartypatriots.org.
00:00 — A mission for every school in America
00:36 — Bohemia: the schoolteacher who defied an empire
01:40 — Shocked at the condition of the original
02:17 — The Stone print and the widow's negatives
04:16 — The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
04:55 — Selling sets to every bank in town
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