Drexel and the National Constitution Center to Unveil a New Exhibition on Pennsylvania’s Founding as Part of America’s 250th Anniversary Celebration

Drexel University and the National Constitution Center will open a new special exhibition entitled Pennsylvania’s Founding: How a City and a Colony Shaped America’s Civic DNA. The exhibition will be free and open to the public at the National Constitution Center from Sept. 30, 2026 through Jan. 3, 2027.

Initiated by a group of local funders and presented in partnership by the National Constitution Center and Drexel, the exhibition is curated by Drexel’s Lenfest Center for Cultural Partnerships and features artifacts from the Atwater Kent Collection at Drexel and several other important Philadelphia institutions and collections. As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, the exhibition tells an earlier, essential story: how the founding of Pennsylvania in 1681 and the development of Philadelphia as a planned city helped shape the ideals, institutions and civic habits that would later influence the American experiment.

"William Penn had a bold goal when he founded Pennsylvania in 1681: to prove that people of different religions and backgrounds could live together in harmony and prosperity,” said Rosalind Remer, PhD, Drexel’s senior vice provost for Libraries, Collections & Archives and founding director of the Lenfest Center for Cultral Partnerships. “More than any other English colony in North America, Pennsylvania was built on this idea. Drawing on founding documents and rare artifacts, the exhibition explores Penn’s vision, the ways it was realized, and how it was challenged and sometimes compromised by political, cultural and economic pressures.”

The exhibition brings together original versions of several of the most important artifacts that helped define the civic character of early Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. Highlights include:

• Key materials linking Penn’s legal vision to English constitutional tradition, including a 1556 edition of Magna Carta owned by Benjamin Franklin (Library Company of Philadelphia)
• The 1681 Pennsylvania Charter, signed by King Charles II, establishing the colony and granting Penn authority to govern (Private Collection)
• A Lenape wampum belt given to William Penn, associated with the 1682 Treaty of Shackamaxon, symbolizing a hoped-for moment of peace and cooperation (Atwater Kent Collection at Drexel)
• Thomas Holme’s 1683 plan of Philadelphia, the first printed plan of the city and one of the earliest examples of planned urban design in North America (Atwater Kent Collection at Drexel)
• Penn’s 1701 Charter of Privileges, a framework of government for Pennsylvania until 1776, establishing religious freedom and other protections (American Philosophical Society)
• The 1696 Quaker Protest Against Slavery (Quaker & Special Collections, Haverford College, Haverford, Pa), one of the earliest in the Americas, and materials connected to early abolitionist Benjamin Lay

“Philadelphia and Pennsylvania stand at the heart of the American constitutional story,” said Vince Stango, interim president and CEO of the National Constitution Center. “We are delighted to partner with Drexel to bring together extraordinary original artifacts that illuminate Penn’s commitment to freedom of conscience, the city he helped design, and the contested choices that helped define our nation’s opening chapters. During America’s 250th anniversary, this exhibition invites visitors to reflect on how these early experiments in self-government continue to shape our civic life today.”

The exhibition also features landmark original images and views of Philadelphia, including The South East Prospect of the City of Philadelphia (c. 1718), the oldest surviving painting of a North American urban center (Library Company of Philadelphia), and a series of 18th-century maps and views depicting the city through its rapid growth (Atwater Kent Collection at Drexel).

Organized in three sections — “A Holy Experiment,” “Selling an Ideal” and “Liberty, Harmony, and the Struggle for Authority” — the exhibition examines Penn’s efforts to create a tolerant colony grounded in orderly settlement, English law, and freedom of conscience, while also confronting the realities of colonial life.

The exhibition, which was funded by the William Penn Foundation, Poor Richard’s Charitable Trust, Connelly Foundation and Syde Hurdus Foundation, addresses Penn’s promotion of religious tolerance and negotiated relationships with Indigenous peoples, as well as Penn’s own involvement in slavery and the colony’s evolving debate over it. These stories are told alongside the ways Penn’s ideals were complicated by land hunger, displacement and conflict, including episodes such as the Walking Purchase. 

Drexel students will play a major part in the development of two digital experiences for the exhibition. Jenna Gilley, who recently earned a master’s degree from the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design’s Arts Administration program, researched and developed the content for the interactive experiences. In addition, Drexel will have a pair of graduate students from the Human–Computer Interaction & User Experience program (MS-HCI/UX) implement the interactives.

The two interactive digital projects will include an interactive timeline tracing William Penn’s life and key events in the founding and development of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, connected to themes and artifacts on view. And a mapping interactive project exploring the region’s development through historic maps and illustrations, including Indigenous lands and the ways place names and street names connect past and present.

"For Drexel, collaborating on public history projects like this provides opportunities for student involvement and experiential learning,” said Remer. “Developing this exhibition and others, students are working alongside professional staff in the museum field, while applying their own specialized skills. It's a win-win situation for the University and our students."

Lenders to the exhibition include the American Philosophical Society, Atwater Kent Collection at Drexel, Haverford College (Quaker & Special Collections), the Library Company of Philadelphia and additional institutional and private lenders.

This collaboration continues Drexel’s stewardship of the Atwater Kent Collection, which began in 2022. Since then, the University has created interactive exhibitions and collaborated with institutions around the city to continue the former musuem’s mission of collecting, preserving and interpreting a collection of more than 130,000 objects amassed to tell the important stories of Philadelphia’s past and give context for the present.