Today'due south post comes from Megan Huang, an intern in the National Archives History Office. Visit our July 4th web folio to acquire more than about the Declaration and our celebration of it at the National Archives.

Declaration of Independence, Dunlap Broadside1776 00301_2000_001
The Dunlap Broadside, July 4, 1776. (National Archives Identifier 301682)

Before people came to see the Proclamation of Independence at the National Athenaeum, the Proclamation came to the people, only in a unlike form than what's on brandish at present.

When the 2d Continental Congress declared independence on July 4 in Philadelphia, a farmer in Charleston, South Carolina, or a merchant exterior Boston, Massachusetts, might not take heard the news for several days. With the television, telephone, and net yet decades and centuries abroad, people learned of breaking news ofttimes through the written discussion. Broadsides—big pieces of paper printed to be posted in public spaces—were a mutual way for spreading news.

A broadside was how many people learned of Congress's declaration of independence. In particular, from the Dunlap Broadside.

The Dunlap Broadsides are called that because they were printed by John Dunlap, a Philadelphia printer who eventually became the the official printer to Congress in 1778. Over the night of July 4/5, 1776, Dunlap printed maybe one of the well-nigh important documents of his career with these beginning editions of the Declaration of Independence. In doing and then, he produced the first public and published version of the Declaration.

The exact number Dunlap printed is unknown, simply is estimated to be around 200—enough to comply with Congress's orders that the copies be distributed amongst the new states and troops, read aloud, and posted in public areas.

Congress kept its own copy, which was inserted into the Rough Periodical of the Continental Congress 's July 4 entry, and George Washington had his own personal copy besides. His troops heard the Announcement read aloud on July 9 in New York City. That evening the local Sons of Liberty chapter gathered to pull down and destroy an impressive bronze statue of Male monarch George Iii on the southern end of Broadway, in an iconic moment of the Revolution.

The National Archives is famous for displaying the engrossed parchment copy of Declaration, but what'due south bottom known is that we also have a Dunlap Broadside in our possession. It has been displayed only occasionally as a very special document display—only 26 known copies survive.

00300_2003_001 Declaration of Independence engrossed copy
Engrossed Announcement of Independence, Baronial 2, 1776. (National Athenaeum Identifier 1419123)

While today the Proclamation is considered one of the nearly important documents of American history, its 18th-century creators may have been less concerned with its legacy and more with its immediate purpose of explaining why they had been colonists and subjects of the Kingdom of Slap-up Britain on July 3 and citizens of the 13 Us on July 4 (conveniently ignoring the modest detail that this independence still, in fact, needed to be won).

This intent is evident in the Dunlap Broadside. The content is the same as in the engrossed version on display at the National Archives, but the use of simple type instead of calligraphy and a lack of the flamboyant signatures (which Dunlap could non have printed fifty-fifty if he wanted to, since the delegates signed the Declaration August 2 ) allows us focus on the actual words.

More clearly separating the offenses of Rex George III is another noticeable difference that highlights the Declaration'due south purpose of justifying the vote for independence.

The engrossed Declaration has the allure of being the "official" version, merely in 1776, the Dunlap version is actually the one more people would have been familiar with, given its wider apportionment. Offshoots helped ensure this since the most printers based their own editions off Dunlap'south. In contrast to today, more than people during the revolutionary era saw Dunlap'southward version, or some iteration of it, than the engrossed version on display here at the National Athenaeum.

This Independence Day, come up visit the engrossed Declaration of Independence in the National Athenaeum Museum, and spotter our video on the Dunlap Broadside to larn more about its history:

Happy Independence 24-hour interval!

There are other versions of the Declaration of Independence. Learn more in the Prologue article, "Finding the Stones: National Archives Discovers Several Engravings of the Annunciation." And t est your knowledge of the Declaration of Independence by taking our quiz !