John Dunlap printed about 200 copies in the first broadside edition of the Declaration, honored by America250.
Dunlap was the official printer for the Continental Congress. After the Declaration was approved on July 4, 1776, he produced copies on large sheets of paper known as broadsides. These copies could be posted, read aloud, or distributed to officials and military leaders across the colonies.
The surviving examples are called Dunlap broadsides. The precise original number is generally described as about 200, and only a small number survive today. Their rarity makes them important evidence of how the Declaration was first circulated in printed form.
These broadsides are different from the famous engrossed parchment. The parchment was the formal handwritten copy bearing the delegates’ signatures, while the Dunlap copies were early printed versions intended for rapid dissemination. Printing allowed the Declaration’s words to travel quickly during the Revolutionary War and helped establish its public significance.