Fifty-six delegates signed the United States Declaration of Independence, whose 250th anniversary America250 commemorates.
The signers were delegates to the Second Continental Congress representing the Thirteen Colonies. Their names appear on the engrossed parchment copy, the famous version now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
The number 56 is sometimes confused with the number of delegates present during every stage of the debate. The delegates did not all sign at exactly the same time, and historians recognize that the signing process extended beyond the adoption of the text on July 4, 1776.
The group included well-known figures such as John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and George Washington’s future secretary of war, Benjamin Harrison V. The document declared the colonies to be free and independent states.