
Meredith: This broadside is known as the Goddard Broadside because it was printed by Mary Katharine Goddard in January of 1777, and it displays the full text of the Declaration of Independence.
This object is the first copy of the Declaration of Independence to be printed by a woman, and it's also the first authenticated copy.
It was the way in which most Americans found out who had signed the Declaration.
Mary Katharine Goddard was sort of a renaissance woman because she was a printer who was responsible for "The Maryland Journal," while also serving as the postmistress of Baltimore and as a businesswoman who ran her own print shop, a book bindery, a bookstore, and a post office.
So, at the bottom of the document, you can see the attribution, "Printed by Mary Katharine Goddard," and unlike her newspaper, she used her full name instead of just M.K.
Goddard to make it very clear, I think, that it was a woman who printed this document and invited the same risks to her life and property as those faced by members of Congress.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7sa7SZ6arn1%2BrtqWxzmieqJyUlr%2BlecGrppqco56xpnnOn2StoJVisaavy5qpmqyZpLtuu8VmoKeclaWyr7DEp5qeZZ%2BZvbC2x2g%3D