About 200 Dunlap broadsides of the Declaration of Independence were originally printed.
John Dunlap, a Philadelphia printer, produced the broadsides shortly after Congress approved the Declaration in July 1776. A broadside is a single large sheet printed on one side, making it suitable for distribution and public display. Congress wanted the text circulated quickly across the new states and to the Continental Army.
The surviving broadsides are among the earliest printed versions of the document. Their wording and appearance differ in small ways from the later engrossed parchment copy. John Hancock’s name appears on the broadside in the authentication line, but the famous large handwritten signature associated with the parchment document does not appear in the same form.
The original total is an estimate rather than a surviving printer’s count. Only a small number remain known today, making each copy exceptionally valuable to historians and collectors. A previously unknown copy found in Britain in 2009 increased the known total.