Wisconsin Constitution - Original Paper Documents

Original Paper Documents

The original copy of the 1848 document is missing. This handwritten copy contained the signatures of all the delegates who drafted it during the second constitutional convention of 1847. As arguably one of the more important artifacts related to the history of the state, the mystery of its whereabouts has become a well known anecdote in the state.

Soon after it was drafted, the original document was submitted to a printer named Horace A. Tenney of Madison, who produced three certified copies. Two of these copies and the original are missing. The one remaining copy contains the names of the original signers, but not the actual signatures. This is the copy that is used for a display in the rotunda of the State Capitol Building.

The first to discover the original document was missing was historian Lyman C. Draper, who tried unsuccessfully to locate it in 1882. The topic was first reported by the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1917, and subsequently reported by many other news outlets over the years, including Madison's Capital Times in 1935.

There have been different theories about the document’s existence and whereabouts. Two common theories include the notion that the original was never returned by the printer, and also a theory that it was taken as a souvenir by one of the delegates from the constitutional convention.

The first mass printing occurred when printer Beriah Brown issued it in pamphlet form, of which a color facsimile is available for viewing on the website of the state’s Historical Society. Although the Beriah Brown printing was laced with many printers' errors and important textual inaccuracies, it was what state residents of the time read when they voted to endorse a Wisconsin constitution in 1848.