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John Dunlap and the Dunlap Broadside

03 April 2023

On 20 April 2023, a new exhibition highlighting the role of the Ulster-Scots in the American Declaration of Independence was opened at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast.

The exhibition includes an original Declaration of Independence on loan from The National Archives (UK), which is on display in Belfast for the first time.  

The Declaration of Independence on display is of a type known as a Dunlap Broadside, which were the original declarations printed on 4th July 1776 for distribution across the 13 American Colonies.  Of around 200 printed, there are only around two dozen surviving. 

John Dunlap was born in Strabane, Co Tyrone, and is known as the man who printed the first copies of the Declaration of Independence.  John emigrated to Philadelphia as a young man and lived with his uncle, William, who was also a printer.  

Shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed, Dunlap’s printed copies were circulated throughout various states, and the first newspaper outside America to print the text was the Belfast News Letter.  Details of the Declaration had arrived in Londonderry by ship around six weeks after it was signed.  From there, they were sent onwards to the offices of the Belfast newspaper before being published. 

In addition to printing the Declaration of Independence, John Dunlap was also responsible for founding The Philadelphia Packet – which went on to become America’s first daily newspaper. 

The Dunlap Broadside bears the name of two Ulster-Scots, Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the Continental Congress, who was born in Upperlands near Maghera; and John Dunlap, born in Strabane, the printer who the document is named after.  The only other name on the document is that of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress. 

The exhibition, Ulster-Scots and the Declaration of Independence, has been brought about as a result of a partnership between the Ulster-Scots Agency and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

Running from 20 April – 24 July 2023 the exhibition is open to the public.  Admission is free.

To read more about the Agency's launch event, click here.