Documents

Title:

Broadside of the Declaration of Independence

Object Name:

Documents

Creator:

John Dunlap

Date:

circa1776

Material:

Black printing ink, laid paper

Dimensions:

H-4.75 L-21 Dia-7 inches
Measurements is of the framed document.

Description:

The first printing of the Declaration of Independence, printed July 4/5 1776 by John Dunlap in Philadelphia. The document is black iron gall printing on laid paper. It has no signatures, but bears the names of John Hancock, President (of the Continental Congress) and Charles Thompson, Secretary. Fold lines visible and some staining has occured on bottom sections of the document.

Provenance:

Immediately after the Declaration of Independence's acceptance, a handwritten copy, signed by Congress' President John Hancock and Secretary of the Congress Charles Thomson, was sent a few blocks away to the pringting shop of John Dunlap, the Congress' official printer. Throughout the night, Dunlap would typeset and create about 150 "broadsides" (poster-sized copies) of the text. These Dunlap Broadsides are the first official copies of the Declaration of Independence. These broadsides were then delivered to the Continental Congress early on the morning of July 5; one copy was entered into the Congressional Journal while the other issues were distributed throughout the colonies to be read aloud to the colonists and the militia. A copy that was sent to Exeter arrived on July 16 and was read to the townspeople by 22-year-old John Taylor Gilman.

Today, the American Independence Museum owns one of the 26 surviving Dunlap Broadsides. The Museum's broadside was found in 1985 in the attic of the Ladd-Gilman House. The House is owned by the Society of the Cincinnati and in 1991 the Society agreed to display publicly the broadside and turned their clubhouse into a museum. The broadside is still a major focus of the American Independence Museum in its drive to educate the public about the American Revolution.

Subjects:

Broadsides, Posters, Documents, Government, Government papers, Government, Resistance to, Declarations of war, Resolutions

People:

Dunlap, John, Hancock, John, Thomson, Charles, Jefferson, Thomas

Place of Origin:

Philadelphia

Collection Name:

Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Hampshire

Item Number:

1990.199

Accession Number:

1990.199

Type of Material:

Objects

Copyright Statement:

For information regarding copyright, permissions, and reproductions contact the American Independence Museum

Credit Line:

Gift of Dr. John Taylor Gilman Nichols, 1905.

Participating Organization:

American Independence Museum