Was it Misfiled Under "I"?

Rare print of Declaration of Independence Found in British National Archives

A rare copy of the American Declaration of Independence has been found hidden in a file at the British National Archives.

The Archives say that the print, known as the Dunlap print after the printer who commissioned it, is the 26th copy of the document to be found. The last Dunlap print found was sold at an auction for $8.14 million in 2000.

Archives spokeswoman Katrina McClintock said today that the file was found by a researcher looking through late 18th-Century files for something unrelated. McClintock said it was discovered months ago but not revealed to the public until it could be extracted and cataloged.

Given the size of govenrment archives, it is not surprising that things are rediscovered after they have been misfiled or miscategorized (sometimes deliberately). You can imagine the archivist's excitement when he or she realized what had been found, a great find and one wonders how many other documents of great historic significance remain to be found as they sit moldering away silently in many a nation's national archives.