DOCUMENT RESUME ED 302 456 SO 019 524 AUTHOR Walch, Timothy G., Ed. TITLE Celebrating the Constitution: A Bicentennial Retrospective. INSTITUTION National Archives and Records Service (GSA), Washington: D.C. REPORT NO ISBN-0-911333-71-1 PUB DATE 88 NOTE 86p.; Some color photographs may not reproduce clearly. PUB TYPE Collected Works - Serials (022) -- Historical Materials (060) JOURNAL CIT Prologue; spec iss 1988 EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Constitutional History; Federal Governlmt; History Instruction; Resource Materials; *United States History IDENTIFIERS *Bicentennial; Commemorative Events; Commemorative Publications; Historical Materials; ,tUnited States Constitution ABSTRACT This commemorative document was published to celebrate the Bicentennial of the signing of the U.S. :onstitution and to pay tribute to the bicentennial celebration efforts of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration staff. The included articles are: (1) "Introduction: A Celebration at the National Archives" (F. Burke); (2) "The Odyssey of the Constitution" (A. Plotnik); (3) "Constitutional Celluloid: Bicentennial Films" (W. Blakefield); (4) "Portfolio: Personalities Share in the Celebration"; (5) "Exhibiting Constitutional Documents" (E. Soapes); (6) "Celebrating a Special Anniversary" (W. Cook); (7) "Teaching and the Constitution" (J. Mueller); (8) "A Commemoration in Print" (M. Ryan); and (9) "Sharing Constitutional Ideas" (R. Pollock). Numerous color and black/white photographs are included. (JHP) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ******************************************************1.**************** A BICENTENNIAL RETROSPECTIVE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Once ot Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) XThis document has been reproduced as received horn the person or regent:W.0n originating it. O Minor changes have been made to tmtatore reproduction duality Points of view of opinions stated in this docu- ment do rot necessarily represent official OERI position or policy A COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE OF PROLOGUE, QUARTERLY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION 2 A BICENTENNIAL RETROSPECTIVE I A COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE OF PROLOGUE, QUARTERLY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION WASHINGTON, DC 3 Published for The National Archives and Records Administration By the National Archives Trust Fund Board 1988 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Date Celebrating the Constitution. 1. United States Constitution Bicentennial. 1987 - 1991.1. United States. National Archives and Records Administration. KF454'19C45 1988 342.73'029 88-600200 ISBN 0-911333-71-1 34730229 Editor Timothy G. Walch Associate Editor Mary C.. gyan Art Director Serene Feldman Werblood Production Editor Richard B. Smith Photo Editor Dennis R. Means National Archives Committee on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution Linda N. Brown, co-chair Frank G. Bto-1,e. co-chair Charles «'. Bender Rosanne T. Butler Jill Brett Roger A. Bruns Milton 0. Gustafson Kenneth E. Harris Edith M. James Judith A. Koucky Ferris Stove! Timothy G. Walch 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5Foreword 6Introduction A Celebration at the National Archives 8The Odyssey of the Constitution 18Constitutional Celluloid: Bicentennial Films 25Portfolio Personalities Share in the Celebration 30Exhibiting Constitutional Documents 40Celebrating a Special Anniversary 58Teaching and the Constitution 68 A Commemoration in Print 74Sharing Constitutional Ideas 5 FOREWORD Nineteen eighty-seven was an Late in 1984, my predecessor Robert i nportant anniversary year for the M. Warner established an agency-wide United States in general and the committee to address the challenges of National Archives in particular On celebrating the bicentennial. The work September 17, 1787, thirty-nine men of this committee and the hundreds of representing twelve states gathered in Archives staff members who worked on Philadelphia to sign the document that the bicentennial is described in the is the foundation of our federal govern- pages that follow Under the leadership ment. For more than two centuries this of Frank G. Burke and Linda N. Brown, four-page oversized document has been committee members and staff carried the blueprint for our democratic way out this mission with remarkable effi- of life. ciency and effectiveness. This publica- It is a document worthy of com- tion is a tribute to their work. memoration, and what better time to In paging through Celebrating the celebrate than the bicentennial anni- Constitution, it is my sincere hope that versary of its signing! Certainly the you will learn a thing or two about one National Archives took this anniversary of the greatest documents in our na- very seriously As the home of the Con- tion's history. More important, I hope stitution, the National Archives was that you will be intrigued enough to quite rightly one of the major focal return to the Archives to visit the points of bicentennial activity during Constitution. Although the special 1987 ai.niversary year of 1987 has passed, More specifically, this anniversary any year is a good time to come and required the Archives staff to plan new see this great charter of our freedom. exhibits and publications, arrange film festivals and lecture series, coordinate a panoply of special events, and help teacher_ and students alike to better understand and appreciate the Consti- tution. Such a massive effort required Don W Wilson time and skillful coordination. Archivist of the United States 7 5 force would call me with a problem. The problem that summer day was that a visitor the proverbial little old lady was holding up the line of viewers of the Charters of Freedom because she insisted on her citizen's right to read the entire Constitution. Under normal circumstances the four cases of the shrine contain the single page of the Declaration of Independence, the first and last of four pages of the Constitution, antih-e single page of the Bill of Rights. When I went to the area and spoke with the woman, I informed her that the two 1' middle pages of the Constitution were not displayed, and if she really wanted to read the entire document I would give her a complimentary copy of a facsimile that did have all four pages. She was polite but insistent, and a bit disturbed that the full Constitution was not there for the citizens to read, and as she moved away we talked about that. I told her that the limitation was the result of an architectural flaw in the design of the exhibition hall. John Russell Pope, the architect, had apparently seen the display of documents as they were exhibited at the Library of Congress between 1924 and 1952, when they transferred to the Archives. At the Library only three pages were on display the Declaration was vertical, and the first and last pages of the Constitution were horizontal beneath it. Right then and there, however; I promised the disappointed visitor that I would look into doing something extraordinary. September 17 is the anniversary of the signing of the Constitutiona fact generally known INTRODUCTION Frank G. Burke at that time to staff of the National Archives, but not common knowledge to the general public. I went to then Archivist James B. Rhoads, whose birthday happened to be on September A As I stood in the Rotunda of the 17, and suggested that we celebrate the Archives on September 17 and watched holiday at the National Archives. the long line of people snake its way We had tried to hold public events Celebration through the front door and past the on July 4, the anniversary of the cases containing the four pages of the Declaration of Independence, but had signed Constitution, my mind drifted encountered too much competition. atthe back to a summer day in the early Most military unitsbands, holier 1970s when I was the Assistant guards, etc. had long since been National Archivist for Educational (now Public) scheduled elsewhere on that date. It Programs. As such, the Rotunda and its was difficult to engage a major speaker exhibits were my bailiwick, and it was Washington tends to be deserted in Archives natural that a member of the security midstimme except for tourists, and 6 8 congressmen were, of course, giN ing the Constitution was scheduled, and over vast -to -vast radio about the long Fourth of July speeches in their own in addition to the volunteers' leLture line of people snaking through the districts. series, a special lecture by Justice Rotunda at midnight; the D.C. cab September 17, however, would allow Harry A. Blackmun was co-sponsored driver who drove a fare to the ArLhives us to plan events with fewer constants. by the National ArLhives and the at 3 a.m. and Lame inside himself to Military ceremonial units were Supreme Court Historical Society. Also, get his first look at the Constitution, available, most of Congress was in beginning in 1985, the Archives had the early morning joggers who town and working, and there were few cooperated with local theatrical groups detoured from the Mall, jogged if any events that regularly fell on that in preparing and presenting dramatic up the thirty-nine steps, viewed the date. Beginning in 1970, the National interpretations of historical material documents, and then continued on Archives celebrated September 17, and that was in the agency files held by their way. Then there were the Girl to make_a_more meaningful we began_._thechives. For 1987 these efforts Scouts handing out copies of the the tradition of exhibiting all four were continued, but there was also Constitution to all comers, the Boy pages of the Constitution on that day: a "street theater" production with the Scouts acting as honor guard for part of Originally, the pages were displayed in the evening shift; the spit and polish of a simple wooden frame constructed by an all-service honor guard changing me and the Archives carpenter It was the guard with the precise click, dick, placed in the center of the Rotunda and click of their heels on the marble floor, flanked by an all-service honor guard, rm.