Fifty-six delegates signed the United States Declaration of Independence.
The signers were members of the Second Continental Congress, which represented the thirteen American colonies during the break with Great Britain. Their names appear on the engrossed parchment copy traditionally displayed by the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
The signing process was not a single brief ceremony involving every delegate at once. Most delegates signed on August 2, 1776, after Congress adopted the declaration on July 4. Additional signatures were added later, and the document’s famous large signature belongs to John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress.
The total of 56 is different from several other numbers associated with the Revolution. The declaration represented thirteen colonies, but it had 56 individual signers. The Constitution, signed eleven years later, initially received the signatures of 39 delegates.