On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Irish immigrant John Dunlap completed printing of the first 200 or so copies of the Declaration of Independence. These first copies were in the form of a broadside — essentially a poster to be tacked or pasted onto a wall for the public to read. These initial copies do not include the signatures of the Signers that we are familiar with today as they would not begin signing until the next month. The only names on the Declaration at this point were the printed names of John Hancock as President of the Continental Congress, Charles Thomson as Secretary of the Congress, and John Dunlap the Printer. Hancock and other members of the Congress immediately began distributing copies to each of the state conventions, the Continental Army and others.

Sources: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/timeline; https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667578/?__cf_chl_f_tk=KkE9h9fnawlvmLnBAF0cg6mu8cpUjpZ5Yoxo2vRpn0Q-1783304258-1.0.1.1-.5cxCPQz70SL_ompiRPeUTTJzDguSQcHxIG9OJl3Kms; “John Adams to Mary Palmer, 5 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0018. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, June 1776 – March 1778, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 34–35.]; https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/historical-society-of-pennsylvania-what-happened-on-july-5-1776/; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiCcnCsEmkA;