All are invited to a special display in the Beinecke Library reading room (121 Wall Street, New Haven) to mark Constitution Day, September 15, 2024, from 1pm to 4pm. This event commemorates the 237th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution by the members of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As 2024 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the resignation of President Richard Nixon, and is a presidential election year, the display will invite attendees to reflect on the implications of executive power in the nation’s founding and historical documents.

The display will include the first printing of the Constitution by Dunlap and Claypoole as well as its first newspaper appearance on September 19, 1787, in the Pennsylvania Packet. Other documents will highlight the Constitution’s power, interpretation, and legacy over the past two centuries. The event will be presented in conjunction with the Yale Film Archive screening of a brand-new 35mm print of All the President’s Men at 7pm on Friday, September 13, and Our Nixon at 4pm on Sunday, September 15, in the Humanities Quadrangle at 320 York Street.

Kindly note: all visitors to this special display will need to check any and all bags, coats, and other personal belongings in secure lockers on the library’s ground floor before going to the reading room.