Reading of Declaration of Independence, 1776

Reading of Declaration of Independence, 1776

Reading the Declaration of Independence before Washington's Army, 1776. The Declaration of Independence was printed during the late afternoon on Thursday, July 4, by John Dunlap, a local Philadelphia printer. Congress ordered that copies be sent "to the several Assemblies, Conventions, and Committees or Councils of Safety, and to the several Commanding officers of the Continental Troops, that it be proclaimed in each of the United States, and at the head of the Army." By the next morning copies were on their way to all thirteen states by horseback and on July 5 the German Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote, became the new nations's first newspaper to announce that the Declaration had been adopted. On Saturday, July 6, the first newspaper print edition of the full text of the Declaration appeared in the Philadelphia Evening Post. On Monday, July 8, the Declaration of Independence was "proclaimed" (read aloud) by Colonel John Nixon of the Philadelphia Committee of Safety at the State House in Philadelphia. Throughout the city, bells were rung all day.

Album / Science Source / New York Public Library

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27.2 x 36.8 cm | 10.7 x 14.5 in (300 dpi)