John Dunlap printed the first widely distributed broadsides of the Declaration of Independence, the founding document commemorated by America250. Dunlap was a Philadelphia printer who produced the copies soon after Congress adopted the text.
These sheets are known as the Dunlap broadsides. About 200 were printed for distribution to colonial governments, military leaders, and other recipients. The printing helped Congress circulate the declaration quickly during the Revolutionary War.
The source manuscript used by Dunlap has not survived, so historians cannot identify it with absolute certainty. Thomas Jefferson's rough draft and other congressional copies were part of the document's complicated production history, but Dunlap's job was to turn the approved text into a public printed form.
The surviving broadsides are among the most important early American documents. Their rarity has made them highly valuable, while their wording provides evidence about how the declaration first reached readers beyond the congressional chamber.