On Independence Day (July 4), The New York Times printed the Declaration of Independence, as it had done — the daily noted in an article on the preceding day — for 90 years, since 1922.
What the announcement the day before did was tell the reader that this year's printing would be "accompanied for the first time by a transcription, set in the Imperial typeface, following the capitalization, punctuation and spelling of the original" ("A Clear Declaration of Intent Is Now Even Clearer," July 3, 2012).
That was a good thing to do. Since I began noticing the Declaration printed on the back page of the front section of the Times decades ago, I had wondered: Who would ever read — who could ever read — the facsimile of the handwritten document, however beautiful the penmanship?