(Image: The signatures as they appear on the iconic Stone Engraving (1823) of the Declaration of Independence)
The majority of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence signed the formally engrossed (written) parchment version of the Declaration on this day, the 2nd of August, in 1776.
On July 2, 1776, the Lee Resolution for independence from Great Britain was unanimously passed by the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, and the text of the Declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776. On July 19, 1776, the Continental Congress ordered that the Declaration be engrossed—i.e., carefully written in large, legible script—for signing.
The task was assigned to Timothy Matlack, a clerk in the Pennsylvania State House. Matlack’s work, as summarized by the National Archives, "included laying out the text on the parchment, determining the margins and space between lines, and calculating the space that would be needed at the bottom of the document for signatures."
The Matlack version that was signed still exists. It is on display in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., but is faded so badly as to be almost illegible. This is in part because the document was not particularly well cared for even by the standards of the 1800s and early 1900s.
(Image: The original Matlack version of the Declaration of Independence, now badly faded.)
So, it's not surprising that the Declaration as most people envision it isn't the Matlack version but what is known as the Stone Engraving, a facsimile printed by William J. Stone which extremely closely reproduced how the Declaration appeared in 1823. At least two earlier facsimile versions by other printers did not as precisely reflect the original, and the Stone Engraving became America's iconic version of the Declaration of Independence.
(Image: The Stone Engraving—the iconic, 1823 facsimile of the Declaration of Independence.)
The very first printing of the Declaration was published the night after its text had been approved, July 4, 1776, and is known as The Dunlap Broadside, named after the printer tasked with its publishing, John Dunlap, who produced about 200 copies. They were distributed on July 5, 1776. For the broadside, Dunlap used the typeface Caslon, designed by William Caslon I (c. 1692–1766) in London—specifically, typography experts surmise, Caslon fonts English Roman No. 1 or English Roman No. 2. A high-resolution version of the broadside is available online through the Library of Congress.
(Image: The Dunlap Broadside)
In total, fifty-six delegates of the Continental Congress signed the Declaration. A few did do so later than August 2, 1776. Interestingly, some who signed it were not delegates or were delegates who were not present on the day that the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration's text on July 4, 1776. For various reasons, mostly circumstantial, eight delegates present on July 4, 1776, never signed it; only two of them did not sign due to reasons of principle—John Alsop and John Dickinson—and George Read and Robert Morris did not vote in favor of the resolution of independence but signed the Declaration nonetheless, thereby joining the signatories who, in the words of the Declaration's famous last line, "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."
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