Delegates primarily signed the engrossed United States Declaration of Independence on August 2, 1776.
Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, but the famous parchment was not signed by most delegates that same day. Congress ordered the official engrossed copy on July 19, and Timothy Matlack prepared the parchment manuscript.
Most delegates added their signatures on August 2 in Philadelphia. Some members signed later, including several who had not been present when Congress adopted the document. The signing therefore differs from both the adoption date and the date of the Declaration’s first public readings.
The parchment is now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. It contains 56 signatures, although the delegates did not all sign under identical circumstances. America250 commemorates the founding document’s adoption and the independence movement it announced.