What are the first printed copies of the United States Declaration of Independence called?

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

Philadelphia printer John Dunlap produced these copies for the Continental Congress on the night of July 4, 1776. A broadside is a large sheet printed on one side, designed for public display or distribution rather than bound as a book.

Historians estimate that Dunlap printed about 200 copies, though the exact number is unknown. The sheets were sent throughout the colonies and to military leaders so that the declaration’s text could be read and reproduced quickly. One copy was pasted into Congress’s journal.

The Dunlap broadside is different from the engrossed parchment copy familiar from photographs. The parchment version was prepared later for delegates to sign. In January 1777, Congress commissioned Mary Katherine Goddard to produce another broadside that included the names of the signers, making it the first widely distributed version to identify them. About two dozen Dunlap copies are known to survive.