Miss Polly or Myra
Copies of the Declaration that no longer survive still have stories to tell
John Adams sent one of the first printings of the Declaration—more than likely one of John Dunlap’s broadsides—to Mary Palmer, better known as Polly, on July 5, 1776. The Declaration became separated from the enclosing letter, which is now in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and has been reprinted, with an emphasis on Adams’s side of the story.
Detail of John Adams to Polly Palmer Facsimile, New York Public Library
It is not clear if any of the known Dunlap broadsides might have been the one Adams sent to Palmer. More likely, it no longer exists. But, even without the Declaration, Palmer’s story and her reaction to the news of independence survive. She “most sincerely” thanked Adams for his “Present of the Declaration of independancy” and said that “nothing cou’d have given” her “more pleasure.” According to Palmer, who was living outside of Boston, the Declaration was “universally reciev’d with Joy by the friends of their Country.” She expected that “the latest Posterity may have Reason to look back to the Year 1776, as the happy Era of their Liberties being secur’d by the Wisdom of the Congress”—a fitting sentiment as the United States nears the 250th anniversary of independence. Although Adams addressed her as “Miss Polly,” Palmer signed her letter with a penname, “Myra,” to protect her identity in case the British intercepted her correspondence with Adams.
Each week’s story typically concludes with a note about where to see that particular copy of the Declaration of Independence, either online or in person. But this week, there is no link. Copies of the Declaration that no longer survive still have stories to tell. And this week, you have the option to listen rather than read!
The podcast Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant, hosted by Kathryn Gehred, explores the correspondence of 18th-century women. In a recent episode, Kathryn and I explored the letter from Polly Palmer to John Adams in response to receiving the Declaration of Independence.
Here is a snippet of the transcription from our conversation.
You can hear the full episode on your preferred podcast app or the R2 Studios website, and you can read the letter in the Adams Papers Digital Edition.
Emily Sneff: It's a letter that has been sort of separated from its context. It's been treated for John Adams perspective and not Polly's perspective, and I think that's missing a key part of the story that like for all of her apologies and her sort of anxiety about writing to him, he is genuinely so glad to have heard from her. That's kind of nice to think about.
Kathryn Gehred: She does mention that she gets the Declaration of Independence. She gets his letter from John Adams, and she wants to write him back, but there's no paper in the house. She has these little things, these military commissions on them that they've been using in the house, but they would not do to send to Congress. Was this part of like a revolutionary war paper shortage. What was going on there?
Emily Sneff: Definitely, so if you think about the timeline. So she writes to John on June 15. He writes back on July 5, and he encloses, more than likely, one of the first printings of the Declaration of Independence to her, probably one of John Dunlap's broadsides that he printed the night of July 4. If he had included a different copy of newspaper or something, he probably would have described it differently. So we can assume that this was one of the men who worked on the Declaration of Independence, enclosing one of the first copies to this woman in Massachusetts. And that is intimidating, right? You get this letter that has this big poster size copy of the declaration folded up in it. She writes back to him on August 4. So if you think about a sort of two week window that it took for mail to travel from Philadelphia to Boston, she received his letter around the middle of July. That's when the news of the Declaration of Independence reaches Abigail Adams and everyone else in Boston.
So she then waited two weeks to write her response, and yeah, it's certainly a reflection of shortages, wartime shortages. Again, Boston is still recovering from the British evacuation, and so she has the sort of like forms and like things in her house that could be used to write a letter, you know, on the back of it, but that would be appropriate for like sending a letter down the street, a note to someone, not for sending something to Philadelphia.
And the other piece of this letter that's interesting at the end of it, when she talks about the risk of it being intercepted, you wouldn't necessarily want a military commission blank, though it is to be intercepted by the British. So she's really being thoughtful as she waits for, you know, a suitable piece of paper to use. But yet, it's definitely a reflection of just the material conditions of this period of time, and also her awareness of like, the importance of her correspondent.
Kathryn Gehred: That also comes through to me a lot in this letter, where she she says, I'm loathe that any misinformation could lead to a false account, because things need to be transmitted to future ages. So she knows that this is a historical moment, and she knows that she's writing with somebody who's kind of making history, and that she's now a part of it, and she's really deeply aware of that. I think that's interesting, because, like you say, with the Declaration of Independence, they didn't know what the impact was. But it seems like she is really optimistic that this is going to be a moment that's really important.
Emily Sneff: Absolutely, this coincides with a moment where John Adams also realizes that his papers are going to be transmitted to future ages, and he buys a letter book that he can start to keep an account of the letters that he's receiving and sending. And he tells Abigail, I wish I could send you one, because your letters are much better than mine. And he wishes that they could create some sort of archive. So we're fortunate as historians to have the Adams papers as this resource of what was happening during the revolution, and especially the two sides, right? We typically get the men writing to their wives, but not the wives responses to their husbands, which is maddening.
And here, you know, we have the same thing. We have the back and forth with Polly that, you know, I think she has an awareness, and he has an awareness that someday someone might read what she's writing. And so she wants to make sure that the actual product looks good, that it's not scratched and, you know, blotted and messy, and it's not written on the back of some piece of paper. She wants it to be on a clean sheet of paper. So I think that is very relatable.
Kathryn Gehred: And also she's imagining future historians reading this and being like, that's not right, exactly, yeah, he got that wrong information from this woman, yeah?
Emily Sneff: Like you don't want to be a footnote for the wrong reason, right?
