To mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, the Board of Park Commissioners allocated funds for this commemorative tablet. Although the Declaration was signed in Philadelphia, not Boston, several prominent Bostonians helped to draft and approve it, including John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Robert Treat Paine—all of whom are depicted here, and some of whom are buried in nearby cemeteries. Sculptor John Francis Paramino modeled his monument’s bronze relief on John Trumbull’s famous large-scale painting, Declaration of Independence, which was hung in the Rotunda of the Capitol building in 1826. Beneath the scene, the Declaration’s text is inscribed in a script nearly identical to that found on the original document.