Celebrating Constitution Day

Happy Birthday Constitution--Family Day, National Archives Identifier 184340922

Twenty years ago, Congress passed a law recognizing September 17 as Constitution Day.  On that date in 1787, the delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia put their signatures on the Constitution of the United States.  Local celebrations of Constitution Day started over 100 years ago, but it didn’t become federal law until 2004. 

Photograph of Constitution Day 1974, National Archives Identifier 35810542

The state delegates at the Constitutional Convention approved the draft of the new constitution on September 15, 1787.  It was then given to Jacob Shallus, assistant clerk for the Pennsylvania assembly, to write the official copy.  It took him about 40 hours to recopy the 4543 words of the Constitution, and he was paid $30 for the work.

Constitution of the United States, first page, National Archives Identifier 1667751

After the Constitution was signed, the ratification process began as each state held special conventions as laid out in Article VII.  The Constitution states that the new government would go into effect once nine states had ratified it.  When Congress was informed that the New Hampshire convention had approved the Constitution, on July 2, 1788, it began preparing for the first presidential and congressional elections.

Photograph of Constitution Week, National Archives Identifier 12169260

But what happened with the actual document?  Brand new governments don’t have archives, so the four page document was given to the State Department for safekeeping.  It moved around with the rest of the federal government from New York to Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.  While the one page Declaration of Independence was frequently put on display, the four page Constitution was filed away.  In 1921, President Harding signed an executive order transferring the Constitution and the Declaration to the Library of Congress.  They both went on display there in 1924.  

Construction of the National Archives Building, National Archives Identifier 79444193

There was discussion of moving them when the National Archives was founded in 1934, but the founding documents were not transferred until 1952 when a military escort took them from the Library to the National Archives building.  Since then, they have been on display in the specially designed Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom. 

Every year on Constitution Day, the National Archives hosts a naturalization ceremony in the rotunda of the Washington, D.C. building.  At last year’s ceremony, Archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen Shogan, said “These Charters are the bedrock of our democracy; but they are not static relics.  They are a testament to the enduring values of freedom, justice, and equality that we are continuously striving to perfect. They are living promises—a covenant between the government and its citizenry.”

What makes a good tag? 

When tagging textual records, it’s best to keep in mind that the catalog’s search engine will be able to read the transcription.  So don’t worry about repeating words and phrases already in the transcription.  You can add tags for larger ideas or movements concerned in the records, but not directly stated, such as “Civil Rights” or “Cold War.” 

Tags are especially useful when they can clarify when the original text is unclear.  For example, the original text might refer to “President Bush.”  You can use a tag to specify which President Bush is meant.  In our Revolutionary War Pension Project, tags are especially useful for identifying battles, which applicants often call by different names.  For example, the “battle at Little York” and the “surrender of Cornwallis” should both be tagged as “Siege of Yorktown.”  

Read more about what makes a good tag on our Resources page.  

More about the specific tags for the Revolutionary War pensions can be found here.