John Dunlap produced about 200 copies of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, known as the Dunlap broadsides.
Dunlap was a Philadelphia printer who received the assignment from John Hancock, president of the Second Continental Congress. Printing began shortly after Congress adopted the Declaration, allowing copies to circulate quickly through the colonies and reach military leaders and foreign observers.
A broadside was a large sheet printed on one side, designed for public display or reading aloud. The Dunlap copies were not the handwritten parchment document later associated with the National Archives; they were early printed versions made for rapid distribution.
The broadsides are historically important because they preserve the Declaration’s first published form. Their wording and layout also help historians study how the document entered public life. The phrase “original copy” can cause confusion: the engraved parchment is the formal engrossed copy, while the Dunlap broadside is an early printed edition.