00:07 - Hello and welcome to the national constitution

00:09 - center and our newest exhibit america's founding

00:12 - this exhibit explores the moment

00:15 - of the declaration of independence in seventeen seventy six a big anniversary for

00:19 - this year twenty twenty six is the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of

00:24 - the writing of that document

00:26 - but it also explores

00:27 - the period of time leading up to the revolution as well as

00:31 - the time period after the revolution where we were forming a new government

00:35 - we get into the constitutional convention and also

00:38 - the creation of the bill of rights

00:40 - so the exhibit really takes you on a journey from

00:43 - the early days of people starting to talk about

00:47 - revolution

00:48 - to the establishment of our new government.

00:52 - It's a fantastic exhibit it's very immersive so you walk into

00:56 - Boston in the 1760s and hear people talk about

01:03 - the

01:03 - you know taxes and

01:06 - other intolerable acts that the British government

01:09 - is imposing on the colonists

01:12 - there's interactive

01:14 - elements and some touch screens where you can

01:16 - learn about people who were loyalists and

01:19 - people who made that radical decision to be a patriot it's easy

01:23 - in

01:24 - 2026 to say that we would have all been

01:27 - patriots and fought on the side of the American revolution but

01:31 - it was not an easy choice for people living

01:34 - in the colonies back then

01:35 - from the tavern scene

01:37 - you walk into valley forge and we explore

01:41 - the actual American revolutionary war you can see

01:44 - items from soldiers that they would have carried with them

01:48 - powder horns and things like that

01:50 - in that space you also hear the voices of

01:53 - George Washington and you hear the voices of ordinary

01:55 - soldiers that's all taken from primary sources so you learn

01:59 - what it was really like and.

02:01 - Not only

02:02 - at that winter at valley forge but also

02:04 - to fight in the American revolution.

02:07 - That space is also where we explore

02:09 - the stories of all the people that the American

02:12 - revolution would have affected we have journals

02:15 - from women in that time period we have

02:18 - artifacts connected to the indigenous people and we have

02:21 - a pay voucher from a black soldier who fought

02:24 - for the revolutionary war so that's you're really exploring

02:28 - all of the different stories and all the different

02:30 - people that the American revolution affected

02:33 - From there

02:34 - we take you to a street scene

02:35 - Philadelphia 1787 that's when the constitution was written

02:39 - that exhibit has a really fantastic display of artifacts that were found right here

02:45 - when the museum was being built so we can explore the

02:48 - daily life for American citizens

02:50 - at that time.

02:52 - We had won the revolution but now it's time to set up a

02:54 - new government to really enshrine those values that we

02:58 - you know fought for into this new government

03:01 - of the people by the people

03:03 - so we explore the constitutional convention

03:05 - and all of the different

03:06 - debates that came up the compromises we have a fantastic timeline so you can see

03:11 - what

03:12 - the delegates were talking about when

03:14 - throughout the summer

03:16 - and as you learn about the constitutional convention one really cool thing about this

03:20 - exhibit is that it gives us a glimpse into signers hall

03:23 - in seventeen eighty seven

03:24 - the constitutional convention was held in secret so all of the doors and windows to

03:28 - independence hall were shut tight

03:31 - no one knew what was going on in there there was no peeking through the windows

03:35 - we've changed that a little bit so you can get a peek into signers hall which is our

03:40 - recreation of the constitutional convention

03:43 - and you can look in

03:44 - through a window and see

03:45 - the delegates at work

03:47 - writing the constitution

03:50 - And then

03:51 - as you turn the corner

03:52 - you see a copy a very rare

03:54 - early copy of the constitution because

03:57 - we needed to get that word out to the people

04:00 - the constitutional convention was held in private

04:03 - it was kind of held in secret people didn't know

04:05 - what the delegates were discussing

04:08 - in seventeen eighty seven so this early

04:10 - printing was the first time that we the people

04:13 - would have seen

04:14 - this new government that they created this

04:16 - revolutionary new government that they created

04:18 - as it was really important to get that word out especially because the next step

04:23 - was to have this constitution ratified by the states

04:26 - so we explore that process too

04:28 - we have early copies of the federalist papers

04:30 - which were really persuasive essays

04:33 - asking the people the states to

04:35 - get on board with the new constitution and ratify it.

04:39 - Then one thing that really came out of that ratification process we know

04:43 - it was the fact that the constitution didn't originally include a bill of rights so

04:47 - people looked at it and they said this is a great government but what about us

04:51 - what about we the people what rights do we have

04:53 - and so

04:54 - the exhibit really ends with that first congress taking on.

04:59 - That challenge as their

05:01 - first order of business is to create

05:04 - this bill of rights

05:05 - to make sure that

05:07 - everything that we fought for in the revolution was really enshrined in the

05:10 - constitution so James Madison father of the constitution

05:14 - took that on and so

05:15 - the final video of the

05:17 - exhibit explores

05:19 - how he pulled together these basic human rights

05:23 - that he was going to

05:24 - propose to the new congress and then eventually

05:27 - to the states and so we have a really great

05:29 - early

05:30 - copy of the bill of rights as they were so working that out it's not even whittled

05:33 - down to the ten we know today yet

05:35 - so really fantastic

05:37 - exhibits to explore those immersive scenes where

05:40 - you really do feel like you're stepping back

05:43 - in time

05:44 - and we really hope that people leave learning a little bit more about the

05:50 - declaration of independence and this period of time

05:52 - where we were founding our country

05:54 - but also understanding that

05:56 - that wasn't an endpoint that was just a beginning but we're also not the end

06:00 - point here in two thousand and twenty six two hundred and fifty years later

06:03 - we are continuing their legacy

06:07 - that mission to form a more perfect union

06:09 - has been happening for two hundred and fifty years

06:11 - and it will continue to happen long into the future

06:14 - and we're a part of

06:15 - creating that story

06:17 - and learning

06:18 - the last chapter

06:20 - and writing the next one.