Ephemera Society of America Conference & Fair (Ephemera 46) (March 19-22, 2026)

On July 4, 2026, the United States of America (USA) will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. John Dunlap, a twenty-nine-year-old Irish immigrant, spent much of the night of July 4, 1776, hastily setting type and printing final copies of the single-sheet broadside of the Declaration. One was attached with a seal and folded into the Continental Congress manuscript journal after the words: “The Declaration being again read was agreed to as follows.” The others were distributed throughout the new United States to be read aloud in each of the 13 colonies and to the continental troops. Newspapers quickly published the contents. It is self-evident that ephemera played a pivotal role in the founding of our country. This broadside not only described the reasons for the country’s founding, it was also the means by which the public…