Show notes
You know that beautifully, hand-written Declaration of Independence, with “In Congress, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration…” across the top? Well, that’s not this story. Instead, we’re talking about how the Declaration of Independence really reached the masses, and why that was so important in the years leading up to the American Revolution.
Guests
- Joseph Adelman, professor of history at Framingham State University, 2026 visiting senior fellow at Brown University, author of Revolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing the News 1763-1789
- Jessica Peterson, Director of the Common Press, University of Pennsylvania’s Letterpress and Typography Research Lab
- Michelle Craig McDonald, worked in universities, museums, historic sites for 30 years, most recently as the director of the library museum at the American Philosophical Society, author of Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States
Things To Do
Credits
This episode was mixed by Carolina Duque, audio engineer.
Music arranged by Steve Sechi for Funk Soul Productions.
Companion Blog
Learn more and check out some images on the Episode 29 Companion Blog.
Resources
Adelman, Joseph M. Revolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing the News, 1763-1789. Studies in Early American Economy and Society, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019.
The Adverts 250 Project. Edited by Carl Robert Keyes, professor of history at Assumption University. Retrieved June 30, 2026 from https://adverts250project.org/
Bly, Antonio T. “‘Pretends He Can Read’: Runaways and Literacy in Colonial America, 1730—1776.” Early American Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, 2008, pp. 261–94.
Craig, Michelle L. “Grounds for Debate? The Place of the Caribbean Provisions Trade in Philadelphia’s Prerevolutionary Economy.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 128, no. 2, 2004, pp. 149–77.
Franklin, B., et al. “William Dunlap, Colonial Printer, Journalist, and Minister.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 103, no. 2, 1979, pp. 143–65.
Letter from William Brown and Thomas Gilmore to William Dunlap – April 29, 1768. Neilson Collection, MG 24, B1 Volume 47, file 2: Brown & Gilmore record – correspondence of William Brown & William Dunlap, 1763–1771 (pages 1–23, 25–29). Microfilm C-15778, Library and Archives Canada. (Online at https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/inde-wbrown-tgilmore-wdunlap-1768.htm)
“Manuscript Americana.” Michael Brown Rare Books. Retrieved July 1, 2026 from http://mbamericana.com/andrew-bradford-estate-inventory.
McDonald, Michelle Craig. Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025.
Middeleton, Simon. “Runaways, Rewards, and the Social History of Money.” Early American Studies, vol. 15, no. 3, 2017, pp. 617–47. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/90011105. Accessed 24 June 2026.
Sneff, Emily. When the Declaration of Independence was News. Oxford University Press, 2026.
Taylor, Jordan E. “Enquire of the Printer: Newspaper Advertising and the Moral Economy of the North American Slave Trade, 1704–1807.” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 18 no. 3, 2020, p. 287-323.
Waldstreicher, David. Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004.
The post Episode No. 29 – Printing the Revolution, Part 1 first appeared on Found in Philadelphia.
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