The front page of the Pennsylvania Evening Post from July 6, 1776, reporting the signing of the Declaration of Independence two days before.

Two hundred fifty years ago, members of the Second Continental Congress were busy preparing the Declaration of Independence, the remarkable document that would turn 13 colonies of the British Empire into the United States of America.

The document was formally approved by all attending on July 4, 1776.

They had met in secret; what they were doing was considered an act of treason against the crown. With the document signed by representatives from each colony, it was now time to get the word out to the citizens of the states.

To get the word out they turned to the only mass media available in 1776. It’s the same one you are reading right now. Newspapers served an incredibly important function during that hot summer so long ago. They informed the public that life was going to get real different, real quick.

On July 4 local printer John Dunlap used a press to print around 200 copies of the Declaration that would be sent out to locations across the brand-new country, they were used to make hundreds of additional copies, today at least 26 of Dunlap’s printings are still in existence.

Two days after being ratified, the declaration was printed on the front page of the Pennsylvania Evening Post. It was two days after that, on July 8 at noon, that public readings of the declaration happened in Trenton, N.J., and in Easton, Pa., as well as in Philadelphia.

The Continental Congress asked newspapers to print the Declaration, and papers across the nation quickly began doing just that. At least 29 newspapers printed the document within a few weeks. The Hartford Courant is still printing 250 years later and is proud of the fact that it covered the signing of the Declaration of Independence as breaking news.

Around half of the population was illiterate at the time and would have learned of the contents from a public reading of the document either from a newspaper or from one of the many poster size copies of it that were printed.

Some foreign newspapers, including the Morning Post and Daily Advertiser in London, also printed it.

A free and open press was very important to those who founded our country, so much so that they added it to the Constitution a few years later in the First Amendment.

The Declaration of Independence was the first step in forming the country. It was important to get the word out as quickly as possible. The press, which at that time just meant newspapers, played a pivotal role in reaching as many people as possible. It’s a concept that worked well in 1776 and it still works in 2026.

Art Smith is online manager of The Marietta Times and the Parkersburg News and Sentinel. He can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com.