The National Constitution Center presents America’s Founding

Set in one of two new galleries the NCC plans to open this year, America’s Founding will be joined in May by another examining the separation of powers. The galleries are the first major renovations to the NCC since its 2003 opening.

You are there

The exhibition transports visitors to Philadelphia in 1763, listening in on corner conversations about the King’s onerous taxes, and his troops patrolling the streets. Ambient sound—from the openness of a waterfront to horseshoes on cobblestones, a crackling fire, and voices—draws visitors through a typical streetscape, and through a Valley Forge encampment to hear George Washington in his tent, writing to Congressman Henry Laurens.

Standing outside the last session of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, visitors hear delegates debate the new government, and they witness the first convening of the United States Congress in 1789, as the Bill of Rights is finalized.

Setting sail in a paper skiff

Landmark documents anchor America’s Founding, among them an original copy of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776), the plainspoken pamphlet credited with rallying public support. The print here is on loan courtesy of Elizabeth A. Luttig and the Honorable J. Michael Luttig, NCC supporters for whom the new gallery is named.

Also on view is a Stone engraving of the Declaration of Independence (1823), on loan courtesy of David Rubenstein. Almost 50 years after his father John Adams signed the Declaration, John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, worried that original copies of the document were deteriorating. Engraver William Stone prepared a copperplate engraving, from which 200 prints were made. Rubenstein’s print is one of the 31 Stone engravings still known to exist.

The beating heart of America’s Founding is an original print of the United States Constitution (1787), produced by John Dunlap and David Claypool in their shop at 2nd and Market streets. This is one of just 14 known copies remaining from the first official printing of 500. The loan of this copy, watched over by its own guard, is made possible by Kenneth C. Griffin and Griffin Catalyst. The NCC’s second-floor convening space, which opens to an expansive view of Independence Hall, is named for Griffin, whose $15 million gift is the largest received by the private, non-profit museum.

Sensing the past

As visitors move along, they’re immersed in the daily lives of people across the social spectrum. When most of the Constitutional Convention’s 55 delegates took a break in late July 1787, Washington, the convention’s president, went trout fishing. His kit, an oval tin box and two sharp hooks, is on loan from the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association.

Several objects had a much shorter commute, unearthed from the land beneath the NCC itself. As the building was constructed, a trove of more than a million artifacts emerged from what was once a tightly packed neighborhood of homes, businesses, gardens, privies, and a Presbyterian church. A selection of items is displayed behind glass: coins, creamware, a pitcher, a folding ruler, needles and a thimble, bracelets, and a chamber pot. On the public side of the glass are touchable 3D printed versions, along with a menu of minute-long videos with Jed Levin, Independence National Historical Park archaeologist and chief historian, explaining how the artifacts were discovered and what they reveal.

Diving into debates

Interactive elements enable visitors to see the world through the eyes of landowners, merchants, women, enslaved servants, and others as they weighed whether to support independence or remain loyal to Britain (here’s an online version). Sitting around a table fitted with screens, observers become delegates, wrestling with policy, submitting proposals, and learning what their counterparts in 1787 ultimately decided.

Gazing into the popular Signers Hall, where life-size bronzes of the framers convene, visitors can access a bank of touchscreens and listening devices that distill, in astounding detail, what transpired between May and September 1787. They can track when specific issues were discussed, hear delegates’ commentary, and review explainers on the discussion.

Rallying support

The final section focuses on ratification of the Constitution by the 13 newly created states. Notably, Rhode Island, convinced that small states would be dominated by more populous ones, declined to participate in the Constitutional Convention, so it’s not surprising that Rhode Island was the last to ratify. Pillars illustrating how each state voted funnel visitors toward the concluding area, where the Bill of Rights is explored.

In addition to the huge amount of information available in person, the NCC offers extensive online resources, from searchable documents and scholarly essays, to town halls, podcasts, and teaching resources. For the Semiquincentennial, the center has organized its virtual offerings into the America 250 Toolkit.

Leadership turmoil at the NCC

On January 9, as the NCC anticipated a calendar of celebratory events, came the surprising announcement that Jeffrey Rosen had stepped down as president and chief executive officer, becoming CEO emeritus. Vince Stango, previously NCC executive vice president and chief operating officer, was named interim president and CEO.

Rosen, a legal scholar, author, and law professor at George Washington University, had led the NCC for 12 years and was its public face. In addition to the new galleries, under Rosen’s leadership, NCC scholarly work was enhanced, exhibitions on the Civil War and Reconstruction and the 19th Amendment were mounted, and a First Amendment gallery was added. Online programming, which increased dramatically during the Covid pandemic, introduced the Constitution Center to new audiences, consistent with its mission, which Rosen frequently quoted when convening public programs, “to increase understanding of the US Constitution among the American people on a nonpartisan basis.”

The abrupt change ignited speculation about internal tension and behind-the-scenes maneuvering by board members, fueled by reporting in the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Guardian. Notably, Rosen was not present, and was not mentioned, at a February 13 donor reception and preview of America’s Founding.

On February 19, the NCC issued an additional statement, presumably to quell controversy, that “the NCC and its leadership want to be unequivocally clear that politics of any kind did not play a role in this or any other business of the Center.” It was signed by Rosen, Stango, current board chair Michael George, and immediate past board chair Doug de Vos. Whatever led to the transition, its manner and timing cast a shadow at the start of an important year for the NCC.

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