John Dunlap produced the first published copies of the Declaration of Independence for America250's founding anniversary.
Dunlap was a Philadelphia printer who held a printing contract with the Continental Congress. On the night of July 4, 1776, Congress ordered him to print broadside copies of the newly approved Declaration so its contents could be distributed throughout the colonies.
These sheets are known as the Dunlap broadsides. Historians estimate that roughly 200 were printed, although the exact original number is unknown. The broadsides included John Hancock's name and Charles Thomson's name in printed type, but they did not reproduce the handwritten signatures later associated with the parchment copy.
Dunlap's printing is often confused with Mary Katherine Goddard's later work. In January 1777, Congress commissioned Goddard to print a broadside listing the names of the signers. Dunlap's version came first and helped spread the Declaration's text immediately after adoption.