Media Alert
September 14, 2023
Taylor Fuqua, Manager of PR & Marketing; tfuqua@VirginiaHistory.org; 804.342.9661

Richmond, VA – Constitution Day is an annual observance commemorating the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787. Nearly 240 years later, the Virginia Museum of History & Culture (VMHC) continues to highlight the importance of this document and celebrate the freedoms that it ensures through innovative history and civics education programming, recently expanded with the addition of the John Marshall Center for Constitutional History & Civics (JMC) as its signature study center.

One of the nation’s oldest historical institutions and the oldest in the Commonwealth, the VMHC was founded in 1831 with Chief Justice John Marshall serving as its first president. Marshall, America’s longest serving chief justice, was a key supporter of ratifying the Constitution and is the chief architect of constitutional law, a legacy that endures today. Marshall’s landmark cases include Marbury v. Madison (1803) which established the U.S. Supreme Court’s right to expound constitutional law and exercise judicial review, empowering the Supreme Court to declare laws unconstitutional, and McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), which firmly established the supremacy of federal law over state law. These and other Marshall Court decisions have been cited and relied upon in thousands of cases since then and remain foundational to the U.S. legal system.

The John Marshall Center is dedicated to educating learners of all ages about constitutional history and civics and their importance in our society today. The center operates as a hub for civics throughout the Commonwealth and beyond, providing programming, digital resources, and now access to the museum’s nine million object collection to help promote a deeper understanding of constitutional history and civic responsibility.

In celebration of Constitution Day, the VMHC will:

• Host a free student webinar with the JMC Education team exploring the Constitutional Convention and the framers who created our most important national document.
• Give away pocket Constitutions to museum visitors on Constitution Day (while supplies last; limited to guests with September 17, 2023 admission tickets and VMHC members).
• Launch a new short film about history and civics literacy (available at: Virginiahistory.org/CivicsVideo) and a new version of its Citizenship Test (available at: VirginiaHistory.org/CitizenTest), which draws history and civics questions from those given as part of the U.S. citizenship application process.
• Will begin accepting nominations and applications for the John Marshall Center 2023 Teacher Awards. Each year, the JMC honors a middle and high school teacher for excellence in teaching the U.S. Constitution. Virginia history, civics, government, and social studies educators who have taught at the middle or high school level for at least five years are eligible. Winners will receive a $2,500 honorarium and will be recognized at the Richmond Bar Association annual awards luncheon on November 17. Applications must be received by November 3, 2023. For more information, please visit VirginiaHistory.org/civics.

The Virginia Museum of History & Culture is the only institution dedicated to presenting the entire history of Virginia over time and across regions. Its nationally significant collection of more than 9 million objects, renowned research library, galleries and public programs demonstrate the centrality of Virginia to the narrative of the United States.

The VMHC is owned and operated by the Virginia Historical Society — a private, non-profit organization established in 1831. The historical society is the oldest cultural organization in Virginia and one of the oldest and most distinguished history organizations in the nation.