For 86 years, two copies of the Constitution lay forgotten in a Boston bank vault. The documents — one with doodles and scribbled notes by Nicholas Gilman, a New Hampshire delegate to the Constitutional Convention — were discovered four years ago. Their existence was made public last week after scholars authenticated them. They are expected to shed new light on the deliberations of 1787 since less than half of the original 60 draft copies are still around.
Gilman was hardly a famous Founding Father, but he left behind a treasure trove. His clapboard home in Exeter, N.H., is now a museum, and its executive director, Richard Tobin, learned of the vault in a note that turned up in the house. “We’ve been finding things all over,” he says, “under the beds, in closets, everywhere.” So far, the booty includes a drawing by Paul Revere of the Boston Massacre, papers signed by Louis XVI and Lafayette, and a ring with a lock of George Washington’s hair.
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