John Dunlap produced the first broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence for America250’s founding story.
Dunlap was a Philadelphia printer who worked for the Continental Congress. On the night of July 4, 1776, he printed copies of the Declaration as broadsides—large sheets designed for public distribution. These prints helped spread Congress’s announcement beyond the delegates who had voted on it.
Historians estimate that Dunlap printed about 200 copies, though only a small number are known to survive. The surviving examples are valuable because they preserve the text in the form first distributed after Congress approved it.
The Dunlap broadside is not the same object as the famous signed parchment. The parchment copy was prepared later for delegates to sign, while the broadside was printed quickly for circulation. Another commonly confused figure is William J. Stone, who made a later engraved reproduction in 1823, decades after Dunlap’s first printing.