Replicas of Declaration of Independence printed to recreate history across Massachusetts for America’s 250th

Across Massachusetts 351 cities and towns, authentically handmade copies of the Declaration of Independence will be distributed to modern day residents this summer — recreating the announcement nearly 250 years ago when over 300 copies informed the state of the founders’ intent.

“This is one of the defining moments in Massachusetts history,” said Jonathan Lane, executive director of Revolution 250. “In July 1776, the Declaration of Independence was printed and distributed throughout the Commonwealth to churches in towns large and small, regardless of denomination. As ministers read the Declaration aloud to their congregations, hundreds of thousands of people heard, often for the first time, the words that would forever change the course of history.”

The “Declaration Delivery Day” initiative, organized by Revolution 250, will oversee the hand-making of hundreds of copies of the Declaration of Independence and delivery to each city and town in the state before July 4.

The first reproductions were completed on Friday to kick off the project, Revolution 250 announced.

The initiative aims to bring light to a “lesser-known chapter of Revolutionary history:” the weeks after July 4, 1776, when the residents of Massachusetts heard the words for the first time from their parish ministers and recorded them into official town records.

“Imagine nearly 250,000 people gathered in meetinghouses and churches across Massachusetts, listening as the Declaration proclaimed that ‘all men are created equal’ and ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,’” said Lane. “For many, it was the moment when the Revolution ceased to be a political debate and became a shared public commitment to independence.”

Dozens of the original documents distributed remain preserved today, Revolution 250 said.

The historian and printer Gary Gregory facilitated the printing of the historical document at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill using “18th-century techniques, recreating a labor-intensive process similar to that used in 1776,” the organization said.

The printer’s process involves over 10,000 individual pieces of hand-set type, “each carefully placed to form the document,” Revolution 250 detailed, as well as sheets of handmade paper individually created and ink made to replicate that of the era.

Gregory even often dressed in period clothing “reminiscent of colonial printer Benjamin Franklin,” the organization stated. The historian can produce about 100 copies per day and aims to create 400 ahead of Declaration Delivery Day.

Even 250 years later, Lane said, the initial readings of the declaration “is a powerful image, and one that still gives us chills.”