Labels:text | book | font | paper | document OCR: CONGRES The first draft of the declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper, Dutch hemp paper. On the 28th of June 1776, this paper was accepted and it was on July the fourth of that year that the document was decreed and released. On the 19th of July 1776, congress ordered the Declaration to be copied and engrossed on parchment ( treated animal skin), and this was the document that the delegates actually signed on the 2nd of August 1776.