The Original 1776 Document: Examining the Visual Proof of America's Founding Parchment

Discover what makes The Original 1776 Document: Examining the Visual Proof of America's Founding Parchment is drawing attention in this detailed write-up.

The first physical proof of America's independence was paper, not parchment. On the evening of July 4, 1776, the handwritten working draft of the Declaration went straight to the print shop of John Dunlap, an immigrant from County Tyrone who operated an establishment on Market Street in Philadelphia. Working by candlelight under tremendous time pressure, Dunlap set the lines into type, pulled proofs, and ran off roughly 200 copies overnight. Today, historians refer to these original documents as the Dunlap Broadsides.

Dunlap’s single-sheet prints did not carry fifty-six signatures. At the bottom of the broadside, readers found only two names: John Hancock, serving as President of the Continental Congress, and Charles Thomson, the legislative secretary who attested the document. The sheets measured approximately 15 by 20 inches, printed on laid paper made from recycled linen rags. Messengers on horseback immediately carried damp copies along colonial post roads to military camps, provincial assemblies, and town commons.

George Washington received his copy in New York on July 9 and ordered it read aloud to brigades gathered on the parade grounds. Soldiers and civilians celebrated by marching down to Bowling Green, where they pulled down a gilded lead statue of King George III and melted it into 42,000 musket balls for the Continental Army. Of the original run produced that night, only 26 Dunlap Broadsides are known to survive in public institutions and private collections, making them the most valuable physical records of America’s initial existence.