John Dunlap printed the first widely distributed broadsides of the United States Declaration of Independence celebrated by America250.
Dunlap was an Irish-born Philadelphia printer who served as the official printer to the Continental Congress. On the night of July 4, 1776, he produced the first printed copies of the Declaration ordered for distribution to the colonies, military commanders, and other readers.
These sheets are known as the Dunlap broadsides. They presented the Declaration as a public announcement rather than as the later handwritten parchment copy signed by delegates. The broadsides helped spread the text quickly at a time when newspapers and printed notices were the main tools for mass communication.
Approximately 200 copies are thought to have been printed, but only 26 are known to survive. Mary Katharine Goddard later printed a signed version in Baltimore, which included the names of the delegates. Dunlap’s work therefore belongs to the Declaration’s first public circulation, while Goddard’s printing is associated with a later official-style edition.