What are the first printed copies of the Declaration commonly called?

The first printed copies of the Declaration of Independence are commonly called the Dunlap broadsides.

John Dunlap, a Philadelphia printer working for the Continental Congress, produced them on the night of July 4, 1776, after Congress approved the Declaration’s final wording. A broadside was a large sheet printed on one side, designed for quick distribution rather than binding as a book.

Congress likely ordered roughly 200 copies, which were sent to the colonies, the Continental Army, and other recipients. George Washington received one and had the Declaration read to his troops in New York on July 9. The surviving copies are prized because they represent the Declaration’s first published form.

A common mix-up is the Goddard broadside. Printed in 1777, it was a later edition that included the names of the signers. The parchment document displayed at the National Archives is also later: it is the engrossed copy prepared for signing, not the first printed edition.