Approximately 200 Dunlap broadsides of the Declaration of Independence were printed in 1776.
John Dunlap, a Philadelphia printer, produced the broadsides soon after Congress approved the Declaration. A broadside was a large printed sheet intended for posting, reading aloud, or sending to officials and military units. The copies helped distribute the news beyond the delegates who had debated the document.
The surviving broadsides are named after Dunlap. The source copy he used has been lost, and historians describe the total as about 200 rather than an absolutely documented modern print run. George Washington’s army received copies, and others were sent throughout the colonies and overseas.
These sheets were not the same as the engrossed parchment now displayed at the National Archives. The parchment was the formal handwritten copy bearing the delegates’ signatures, while the broadsides were early printed versions for circulation.