Nearly 250 years before the Declaration of Independence became one of the world’s most recognizable political documents, it was simply breaking news. According to the Harvard Gazette , on the night of July 4, 1776, Philadelphia printer John Dunlap worked through the night after receiving an urgent order from the Continental Congress to produce the first printed copies of the Declaration. Historians estimate he printed around 200 broadsides, but only 26 original copies are known to survive today, making them among the rarest and most valuable documents from America’s founding. Harvard University is currently displaying one of those surviving copies as part of its “War of Words” exhibition marking the nation’s 250th anniversary.
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