National Constitution Center

The National Constitution Center opened on July 4, 2003 — the first museum in the United States dedicated to the Constitution — on the northern edge of Independence Mall, directly across from Independence Hall. The building was designed by Henry N. Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and features a curved granite and glass facade intended to suggest the arc of democratic deliberation. Congress established the center through the National Constitution Center Act of 1988, signed by Ronald Reagan.

The museum’s signature experience is Freedom Rising, a 17-minute theatrical production combining film and live performance that narrates the history of the Constitution from the framing debates of 1787 through the present day. The show plays in a circular, 360-degree theater under a dome meant to recall the idea of We the People surrounding the document they created.

Signers’ Hall presents 42 life-size bronze statues of the 39 men who signed the Constitution and the three delegates who refused — including Edmund Randolph and George Mason of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, who declined on principled grounds. Visitors can walk among the figures and examine their expressions, captured at the moment of the signing.

The center operates as a nonpartisan institution and hosts Constitution Day events each September 17, the anniversary of the signing. Its collections include rare copies of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and artifacts from two and a half centuries of constitutional history and interpretation.