About 200 Dunlap broadsides of the Declaration were printed for circulation in 1776.
After Congress approved the Declaration on July 4, Philadelphia printer John Dunlap worked through the night producing broadside copies. A broadside was a large sheet printed on one side, making it suitable for posting, reading aloud, and distributing quickly.
The exact number is not known, so historians generally describe the original production as approximately 200 copies. These first printed versions became known as Dunlap broadsides. They were sent to colonial governments, military leaders, and other recipients, including George Washington’s army.
Only a small number of the original broadsides survive today. They differ from the later engrossed parchment because the Dunlap printing did not list all of the delegates’ signatures. John Hancock’s name appears in the printed attribution, but the famous handwritten signature belongs to the parchment document produced later.