A heroic Baltimore woman published the Declaration of Independence

From the Archive: You’re forgiven if you’ve never heard of her. Mary Katharine Goddard only gained some popular attention in recent years. And attention she deserves: She was Baltimore’s first postmaster and published the city’s only newspaper during the Revolutionary War. But it’s what she did on Jan. 18, 1777 that ensconced her in the history books.

On that date, Goddard, who operated a print shop on East Baltimore Street, published the first certified copy of the Declaration of Independence with the names of all who had signed it in Philadelphia seven months earlier. That had not been done before, and it was done at considerable risk.

Goddard’s print shop had been located where for many years a Rite Aid store stood, at 125 E. Baltimore St. While old newspaper accounts put Goddard’s shop a couple of blocks to the east, a historian I spoke to in 2015 was convinced that he had found the correct spot, with the help of the Maryland Historical Society.

So we should mark it and remember Mary Katharine Goddard.

You can read more about her in this story from my Sun colleague Mike Klingaman. Also, John Lee reported on Goddard for WYPR.

I am pleased to report that at least two books for young people have been published about Goddard since I first wrote about her 11 years ago: Her Name Was Mary Katharine and Revolutionary Mary.