Who printed the first official copies of the Declaration of Independence?

John Dunlap printed the first official copies of the Declaration of Independence.

Dunlap was the official printer to the Continental Congress, operating a printing shop in Philadelphia. After Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776, the Committee of Five delivered the manuscript to him. He worked through the night setting type and producing broadside copies for distribution.

These sheets are known as the Dunlap broadsides and represent the Declaration’s first published form. Historians estimate that roughly 200 were printed, though the exact number is unknown. Copies were sent to colonial governments, committees, military commanders, and other officials so the announcement could circulate quickly.

The Dunlap broadside is not the same as the parchment engrossed copy now displayed at the National Archives. The famous parchment was ordered later and signed primarily on August 2. Robert Aitken was also a prominent Philadelphia printer who later printed congressional materials, but he did not produce the first Declaration broadsides. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were associated with the document’s political and literary history, not this printing job.