For the John Templeton Foundation, I wrote about the National Constitution Center’s Virtual Constitution.
Between May and September of 1787, the 55 delegates of the U.S. Constitutional Convention gathered at Philadelphia’s Old State House (now known as Independence Hall) to debate and ratify the U.S. Constitution. Today, a short walk through the grassy mall extending north from Independence Hall takes visitors past the Liberty Bell, the site of the house where Presidents George Washington and John Adams once lived, and the grave of Benjamin Franklin, to arrive at the National Constitution Center, a sprawling museum established by Congress to “disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a nonpartisan basis” and open to the public since July 4, 2003.
In 2014 the National Constitution Center, under the leadership of its new director, legal scholar Jeffrey Rosen, began a multiyear partnership with the John Templeton Foundation to expand its work in significant ways. The multi-prong “Coalition of Freedom” project, funded by the Foundation, encompassed museum exhibits, public events, student contests, and the creation of an innovative new tool that allows anyone to explore the origins, and multiple interpretations of, the Constitution.