Jacob Shallus

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Jacob Shallus (1750-1796) was the Engrosser or Penman of the United States Constitution whose hand-written copy of the Constitution hangs in the US National Archives.

Jacob Shallus served as Assistant Clerk to the Pennsylvania General Assembly at the time of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Although his name appears nowhere on the official document, the investigation into the identity of the Penman in 1937 for the 150th anniversary of the Constitution revealed the identity of the transcriber and that $30 was paid for "clerks employed to transcribe & engross."

Shallus is also credited as Assistant Secretary in the 1790 re-authoring of the State Constitution of Pennsylvania.

[edit] External links

• Prologue Winter 2002, Vol. 34, No. 4, Travels of the Charters of Freedom
• National Park Service Educational Document
• History of Penmanship