For America’s 250th anniversary, the engrossed Declaration of Independence is associated with 56 delegates’ signatures.
The delegates represented the thirteen colonies, which became the original states of the United States. The famous parchment was signed primarily on August 2, 1776, after Congress had approved the document’s text. Some delegates who were absent that day signed later, so the signing was not a single moment involving every participant at once.
The 56 signers included well-known figures such as John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Samuel Adams. They did not all have identical roles in drafting or approving the document: the Continental Congress debated the text, while a Committee of Five prepared the draft presented to Congress. The number 56 refers to signers, not to the number of delegates who attended Congress or the number of people who drafted the Declaration.