Every American Knows the Declaration of Independence. Almost Nobody Knows the Woman Who Printed It

As Baltimore’s postmaster and printer to the Continental Congress, Mary Katharine Goddard produced the first official copy of the Declaration of Independence to include the signers’ names—and added her own.

Mary Katharine Goddard (1738-1816) built her career as a printer through a combination of skill and circumstance. The daughter of physician and postmaster Giles Goddard, she received an education that was unusual for women at the time. Her mother, Sarah Updike Goddard, was from a wealthy family in Rhode Island and had been educated in “not only the subjects usual to the day but also French and Latin.” She ensured that her children, Mary Katharine and William, were similarly well educated.

When Giles Goddard died in 1757, he left a sizeable inheritance that Sarah used to finance William’s establishment of the first printing and publishing business in Providence. Goddard worked alongside her mother and brother to support the printing business, eventually taking over daily operations when William sought new business opportunities in Philadelphia. Cycling through printing ventures in Providence, Philadelphia and Baltimore, William was an entrepreneur who relied on his mother and sister to manage each business as he moved on to the next. Goddard kept the businesses running, including during the times when William was in debtors’ prison. In 1773, William bought a new printing business and started Baltimore’s first newspaper, the Maryland Journal.

By 1774, Goddard had taken over production of the Maryland Journal, using its pages to advocate for the patriot cause. She published Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. She covered the Revolution’s early battles with urgency. Avoiding scandal that had plagued her brother, Goddard was well respected by her community in Baltimore and earned the reputation of being a “steady, impersonal newspaper editor.”

In 1775, Goddard was named postmaster of Baltimore, making her, in all likelihood, the first woman to hold the position of postmaster in the colonies. When the Second Continental Congress fled from Philadelphia to Baltimore in December 1776, they began meeting and conducting business at the Henry Fite House (later called Congress Hall) just blocks away from Goddard’s print shop and post office. Soon, Goddard became responsible for handling the incoming and outgoing mail for the delegates. Her reputation as a successful printer, as well as her passionate support for the colonies’ independence, soon earned her one of the most important tasks of her career: printing the Declaration of Independence.

Printing Her Name Into History

In December 1776, Philadelphia was under threat of British invasion. The British Army under General William Howe was advancing toward Trenton, New Jersey, only 30 miles from Philadelphia, which had served as the revolutionary capital for the colonies. The Congress relocated to Baltimore, about 100 miles away.

Weeks later, news spread that Washington had successfully led his troops across the Delaware River and won the battle at Trenton. The summer campaign had been full of demoralizing losses for the Continental Army, and, with this victory, Congress wanted to capitalize on the momentum and remind colonists what they were fighting for. They decided to print a copy of the Declaration of Independence with their names included. This would be the first time all the signatories’ names were publicly known. To do this, they turned to Goddard.

At the bottom of that broadside, beneath the names of 55 delegates* who had risked their lives to declare independence from the British Crown, she printed her own name: “Baltimore, in Maryland: Printed by Mary Katharine Goddard.” Usually printing the Maryland Journal under the name M.K. Goddard, on that day, she chose to fully identify herself. She is the only woman whose name appears on any copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Printing the Declaration with the signers’ names was a bold political act: It transformed the document from an anonymous proclamation into a public list of people who had committed treason against the Crown. By adding her own name, Goddard joined them at great personal risk.

A Career Cut Short

Goddard continued printing the Maryland Journal until 1784, when William returned to Baltimore and took control of the successful newspaper, souring the relationship between the siblings. In 1789, she was removed from her postmaster position. The newly appointed postmaster general replaced her with a man from Annapolis, offering the justification that the expanded role might require travel “a woman could not undertake” even though the postmaster was rarely required to travel for work. More than 200 prominent Baltimore residents signed a letter demanding her reinstatement. Goddard petitioned President George Washington directly and appealed to the U.S. Senate. Washington declined to intervene. The Senate never responded. Though unsuccessful, her petition is preserved in the National Archives.

For the next 20 years, Goddard ran a bookstore in Baltimore. Very little is known about her personal life. None of her letters survive, and much of what is known about Goddard comes from her professional and journalistic choices. She never married and died at the age of 78 in 1816.

Goddard spent her career using her press and her position to advance the cause of American independence. Though her career as a publisher and postmaster was cut short, her decision to print her name on the founding document of a nation—at a moment when doing so carried genuine risk—secured her place in history.

* The name of Thomas McKean, a delegate from Delaware, does not appear on the Goddard Broadside, but his signature is on the famous parchment Engrossed Copy.

Sources:

• Notable American Women, 1607-1950, Volume II: G-O, edited by James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James and Paul Samuel Boyer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.
• Marilyn Harris. “Sarah Updike Goddard: Colonial Woman of the Press.” Smith Castle, March 3, 2022.
• Erick Trickey, “Mary Katharine Goddard, the Woman Whose Name Appears on the Declaration of Independence.” Smithsonian Magazine, November 14, 2018.
• “Mary Katherine Goddard.” National Postal Museum. May 8, 2026.
• Emily Sneff. “March Highlight: Mary Katherine Goddard.” Declaration Resources Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education, March 4, 2016.
• Mark Boonshoft. “Mary Katherine Goddard's Declaration of Independence.” New York Public Library, June 29, 2016.
• “Mary Katharine Goddard Takes a Stance.” National Park Service, January 26, 2022.

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Meredith Herndon | Read More

Meredith Herndon is the writer and editor for the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum.