Constitution Day Resources

Federal legislation in 2004 changed the former Citizenship Day to Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, to be observed on September 17 of each year. Schools are required to observe this day with educational programming focused on the United States Constitution. If the official observance falls on a weekend or holiday, the activities may take place during the week before or following the 17th.

General Resources

• Library of Congress' American Memory offers digitized Constitutional documents and information
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bdsds/bdsdhome.html

• National Archives has digitized the U.S. Constitution
  http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/constitution.html

• The United States Senate's offering of The Constitution offers additional explanations for each section and amendments
  http://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm
   

• The Avalon Project at Yale Law School offers a variety of material through their American Constitution: A Documentary Record Collection
  http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/constpap.htm
   

Historical Resources

• Federalist Papers
  http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html
  Persuasive essays written by Hamilton, Jay, and Madison to explain and promote the proposed Constitution.
   

• The Avalon Project at Yale Law School offers a variety of material that you may browse by century (alphabetical order within the century) or topical collection or use the provided search engine to do a comprehensive search.
   

Teaching Resources

• National Archives
  http://www.archives.gov
  • Celebrate Constitution Day! Events for 2005 at NARA
    http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution/constitution-day.html
  • Teaching with Documents: Observing Constitution Day
    http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/constitution-day/index.html
     
• National Endowment for the Humanities
  http://www.neh.gov/
  Before and Beyond the Constitution: What Should a President do?http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=458
  A discussion of the Constitution's definition of Presidential authority and responsibility as part of the NEH Edsitement collection.
   
• Justice Learning Center's Constitution Day Educational Materials
  http://justicel.bootnetworks.com/constitutionday/Classroom.asp 
  (supported by the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania) provides a  with classroom-appropriate materials.

In the CSUSM Collection

• American State Papers
  Book Stacks  AC1 .G7 v. 43
  A collection of documents pertaining to the development of the US democratic system.
   

• Early American Imprints: First Series
  Microfiche Collection C-498
  Broadsides, pamphlets and more primary documents published from 1639-1800. All individual items are indexed in the CSUSM Library catalog.
   

• Federalist Papers
  Electronic Book available through the library catalog.
   

• A subject search on Federalist will return other materials on the history, impact and recent interpretations of the Federalist Papers and those identified as Federalists. Other subject searches on figures such as Hamilton Alexander 1712 1756, will retrieve related materials and analysis.
   

CSUSM librarians are able to help you locate further resources!

• Allison Carr, Social Sciences

• Judith Downie, Humanities and Government Documents Librarian.

CSUSM Government Information Home Page