April 15, 1776

It’s publication day for When the Declaration of Independence Was News, available in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook. But back in 1776, printers were short on paper. This note in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet explained that the “uncommon scarcity and high price of paper in general” had forced him to print on a different size than usual.

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet or, the General Advertiser
Printed by John Dunlap

⁂ The uncommon scarcity and high price of paper in general, with the impossibility of obtaining the large sort, obliges us for the present to print the Packet on the usual size.