Revolutionary Mary: The True Story of One Woman, the Declaration of Independence, and America’s Fight for Freedom
by Karen Blumenthal and Jen McCartney; illus. by Elizabeth Baddeley
Primary    Roaring Brook    40 pp.
2/25    9781626723115    $18.99
e-book ed.  9781626723122    $11.99

A little-known fact is that the Declaration of Independence, or the “Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America,” signed by fifty-six men and distributed to the thirteen states in 1777, also carried a woman’s name. It was Baltimore printer, publisher, and postmaster Mary Katharine Goddard (1738–1816) who printed the broadside, risking treason charges for her belief in an independent United States. Goddard routinely published news supporting the revolution and put her initials and last name on each paper: “Published by M. K. GODDARD.” It took great courage, and on one occasion a British loyalist “burst into her office to hurl insults, ugly language, and threats,” but Goddard stood her ground. When, in 1777, the Continental Congress voted to send a copy of the Declaration to each of the thirteen states, Goddard was asked to print it as a one-page broadside. “She carefully converted the scrawled names into clear type,” and this time she proudly added her full name. Baddeley’s mixed-media illustrations bring home Goddard’s determination and resolve. The backgrounds in some illustrations incorporate expressive language—“Pound! Pound! Pound!” “Crank, Whoosh!”—to remind us of the sheer strength required to operate a printing press. Detailed back matter provides more information about Goddard (including that she was an enslaver), the Declaration of Independence, and printing and publishing in Colonial times; also appended with a brief bibliography.

From the May/June 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.