Rare Copy of the Declaration of Independence Comes to the Virginia Historical Society for One Day Only October 24, 2009

Virginia Historical Society (VHS) will display one of only twenty-six known original printed copies of the Declaration of Independence. The document is one of close to 200 broadsides [large posters] created from Thomas Jefferson’s original draft by twenty-nine-year-old print shop owner John Dunlap. Ordered by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, Dunlap’s printed copies of the Declaration of Independence were distributed the next day to the thirteen states, King George in England, and George Washington to be read to the soldiers of the Continental Army.