Fifty-six delegates signed the Declaration of Independence, the document celebrated by America’s 250th anniversary.
The signers represented the Thirteen Colonies in the Second Continental Congress. Their names appear on the large parchment, or engrossed, copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The document’s adoption and its signing were related but not necessarily a single ceremony on the same day.
Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776. Most historians conclude that the principal signing of the engrossed copy occurred on August 2, with some delegates signing later. Several men who eventually signed were not present when Congress approved the text, and others joined the congressional delegation afterward.
The 56 signers included future presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, as well as Benjamin Franklin. Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the last surviving signer; he died in 1832. The total is therefore a count of signers, not a count of all delegates who participated in the independence debate.