<P> The official copy of the Declaration of Independence was the one printed on July 4, 1776 under Jefferson's supervision . It was sent to the states and to the Army and was widely reprinted in newspapers . The slightly different "engrossed copy" (shown at the top of this article) was made later for members to sign . The engrossed version is the one widely distributed in the 21st century . Note that the opening lines differ between the two versions . </P> <P> The copy of the Declaration that was signed by Congress is known as the engrossed or parchment copy . It was probably engrossed (that is, carefully handwritten) by clerk Timothy Matlack . A facsimile made in 1823 has become the basis of most modern reproductions rather than the original because of poor conservation of the engrossed copy through the 19th century . In 1921, custody of the engrossed copy of the Declaration was transferred from the State Department to the Library of Congress, along with the United States Constitution . After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the documents were moved for safekeeping to the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox in Kentucky, where they were kept until 1944 . In 1952, the engrossed Declaration was transferred to the National Archives and is now on permanent display at the National Archives in the "Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom". </P> <P> The document signed by Congress and enshrined in the National Archives is usually regarded as the Declaration of Independence, but historian Julian P. Boyd argued that the Declaration, like Magna Carta, is not a single document . Boyd considered the printed broadsides ordered by Congress to be official texts, as well . The Declaration was first published as a broadside that was printed the night of July 4 by John Dunlap of Philadelphia . Dunlap printed about 200 broadsides, of which 26 are known to survive . The 26th copy was discovered in The National Archives in England in 2009 . </P> <P> In 1777, Congress commissioned Mary Katherine Goddard to print a new broadside that listed the signers of the Declaration, unlike the Dunlap broadside . Nine copies of the Goddard broadside are known to still exist . A variety of broadsides printed by the states are also extant . </P>

Reasons the colonial assembly wrote the declaration of independence