National Constitution Center Unveils Plans for New First Amendment Gallery

New exhibit coming September 2023 features U.S. Supreme Court artifacts, interactive elements, and interviews with notable First Amendment proponents

Philadelphia, PA(June 9, 2023) –The National Constitution Center today announced the projected opening date for its newest exhibit, The First Amendment. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the Center opening its doors, The First Amendment will open to the public on September 6, 2023, and kick off the Center’s long-term plans to reimagine the visitor experience.

“The National Constitution Center has a leading role to play in helping learners of all ages understand the centrality of the First Amendment in protecting our unalienable rights of freedom of conscience, which include the five freedoms of speech, press, assembly, petition, and religion,” said Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen. “It’s so exciting to open our new First Amendment exhibit, which will inspire visitors with stories of how Americans have fought for these freedoms over time.”

This exhibit is made possible through the generosity of the George Family Foundation, Lilly Endowment Inc., The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and The McLean Contributionship.

“The five freedoms guaranteed and protected in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution go to the heart of who we are as Americans and human beings,” said Mike George, vice chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center and former CEO of Qurate Retail, Inc. “Our most intense public debates, from the founding until today, have centered on the scope of these freedoms, and the importance of exploring current controversies over free speech in a spirit of open and respectful dialogue has never been greater. The Center is the perfect forum for these debates.”

The 1,500-square-foot exhibit will feature more than 20 artifacts highlighting all five freedoms, including handwritten case notes from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis; the peace-sign armband at the center of the student speech case, Tinker v. Des Moines; and The New York Times’s publication of the classified Pentagon Papers. To highlight the importance of free speech and a free press, the exhibit will also include recorded video interviews with the plaintiffs from key First Amendment cases. The exhibit will feature a game for visitors to test their knowledge regarding what is and is not protected by the First Amendment, as well as an interactive touch table exploring religious liberty cases.

As America’s leading platform for nonpartisan constitutional education, the Center will extend The First Amendment experience beyond the museum walls with virtual tours, web interactives, and associated programming on both historical topics and current issues relating to the scope of First Amendment rights. Online classes on First Amendment principles for learners of all ages will draw on expert guest lecturers and an ever-growing repository of the Center’s educational resources, such as our Constitution 101 curriculum and curated Founders’ Library of primary texts and landmark Supreme Court cases.

In developing the exhibit, the Center consulted with a Scholarly Advisory Board composed of America’s leading experts on the First Amendment, including religious liberty and free speech scholars of diverse perspectives.

First Amendment Scholarly Advisory Board

• Helen Alvaré, Robert A. Levy Endowed Chair in Law and Liberty at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
• Maggie Blackhawk, Professor of Law at New York University Law School
• Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University
• Michael Gerhardt, Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; senior lecturer, University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law; National Constitution Center scholar-in-residence
• Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School
• Marci Hamilton, Fels Institute of Government Professor of Practice and resident senior fellow in the program for Research on Religion at the University of Pennsylvania
• Kenneth Kersch, Professor of Political Science at Boston College
• Michael McConnell, Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School
• Geoffrey Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School
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First Amendment Gallery Artifacts

Sedition Act of 1798 (Loan, Freedom Forum’s Newseum Collection)

• Espionage Act of 1917 (Frank Amari, Jr.)
• Letter from President George Washington to the Quakers, 1789 (Quaker & Special Collections, Haverford College)
• Inscribed pen gifted to socialist labor leader Eugene V. Debs while he was imprisoned for violating the Espionage Act, 1920 (Eugene V. Debs Foundation & Museum, Terre Haute, Indiana)
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’s typed draft with handwritten notes on Whitney v. California (1927) (Louis D. Brandeis Papers, 1881-1966. Box 44, folders 5 -11. Harvard Law School Library. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA)
• Peace-sign armband from Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) (Mary Beth Tinker Family)
• Southern anti-slavery newspaper shut down before the Civil War, 1850 (Collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania)
• The New York Times’s publication of the classified Pentagon Papers, 1971 (Loan, Freedom Forum’s Newseum Collection)
• March on Washington pennant, 1963 (Loan, Freedom Forum’s Newseum Collection)
• Fourth Annual Reminder Day pamphlet, 1968 (Joan Fleischmann collection, 1963-1994, Ms.Coll.26. John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives, William Way LGBT Community Center, Philadelphia, Pa.)

About the National Constitution Center

The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia brings together people of all ages and perspectives, across America and around the world, to learn about, debate, and celebrate the greatest vision of human freedom in history, the U.S. Constitution. A private, nonprofit organization, we serve as America’s leading platform for constitutional education and debate, fulfilling our congressional charter “to disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a nonpartisan basis in order to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.” As the Museum of We the People, we bring the Constitution to life for visitors of all ages through interactive programs and exhibits. As America’s Town Hall, we convene leading thought leaders from across the political and jurisprudential spectrum to debate the Constitution on all media platforms. As a Headquarters for Civic Education, we offer the best educational programs and online resources that inspire and engage all Americans in learning about the U.S. Constitution.