Until 1883, 90% of all paper in the world was made with hemp fiber. This included paper money, books, newsprint, maps, stocks, bonds, and books. The first draft of the Declaration of Independence was written on Dutch hemp paper and the second draft was completed on July 2, 1776.
We’ve learned over the years that hemp paper lasts up to 100 times longer than most other papers, grows much faster than trees, and is stronger and more flexible than paper made from wood pulp.
With the ability to produce thousands of different products across many industries, hemp can be grown in a variety of climates and is an excellent source for food, textiles, paper, fuel, building materials, plastics, health, and nutritional products, and much more.
- World’s First Paper:
Hemp was first used as a paper in China. Paper’s inventors smashed hemp fabric down into thin sheets along with other agricultural waste to make the world’s first paper. The first identified paper dates back to the early Western Han Dynasty, which was around 200-150 BC. This early paper probably replaced cumbersome tablets made from stone or clay. Hemp, was already part of human’s everyday lives for centuries as a source of food, fabric, and rope among other products, making it a readily available raw material to make the world’s first paper. - Hemp Paper Spreads From China, through the Middle East, to the World.
Soon after the paper’s invention, the Chinese realized it’s essential for record-keeping, note-taking, and printing books. They also quickly discovered that hemp paper could be used to wrap delicate items, such as porcelain, during shipment. From their paper spread into the Middle East. The first paper mills, built in China and the Middle East during the 700s, made hemp paper, first through human or animal-powered mills, but later using water power. Since then, hemp paper was used all across the world. The Gutenberg Bible, Thomas Paine’s pamphlets, and the novels of Mark Twain were all printed on hemp. Even in Russia, hemp paper was used to print “banknotes, stamped paper, credit bills, postal stamps, bonds, stocks, and other watermarked paper” in the 1800s. - Used by our Founding Fathers.
The history of hemp paper in the US goes all the way back to our founding fathers. Although the final versions were written on parchment, the first and second drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on Dutch hemp paper in the summer of 1776. Even prior to US independence, hemp was considered a crucial part of the revolution against Britain. Hemp was the key source of paper in the colonies and was used to print pamphlets that helped spread the revolutionary ideas. This helped establish the desire for independence in colonist’s minds. - Forgotten in the 1900s
The turning point and biggest crisis for hemp came in the 1930s when big synthetic textile companies and newspapers used lobbying powers to prohibit the cultivation of hemp in the United States. This was quite ironic, as the laws were enacted only a few months after Popular Mechanics had deemed hemp to be on the verge of becoming a “billion-dollar crop”. Hemp or hemp paper never fully recovered from this prohibition and is mainly used in specialty paper currently.
Sources
O’Connell, K. ( June 30th, 2020). Hemp vs Paper | Hemp Paper Benefits. Ministry of Hemp. Retrieved from: https://ministryofhemp.com/blog/hemp-paper/#what
Tree-Free Hemp. (2020). About Industrial Hemp. Retrieved December 8th, 2020 from https://www.treefreehemp.com/