"A nation's values can easily be discerned by a careful study of what its citizens choose to memorialize. These bronze plaques accurately reflect a sense of common history, and, more importantly, they reveal what individuals, events, ideals, and beliefs our society cherishes."
- Philip Bigler
National Teacher of the Year and author of 6 books,
including Liberty & Learning: The Essential James Madison.
Introduction
While educating and inspiring American students about the cornerstone of their rights and freedoms is the principal purpose of the Spirit of Freedom Experience, it also presents a vehicle by which schools can permanently place bronze plaque replicas of the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights in their institutions. This will be accomplished through our Constitution Plaque Initiative.
Constitutional Plaque Initiative
Through the Constitution Plaque Initiative schools may acquire plaques identical in size and appearance to the original documents housed in the National Archives s in Washington, D.C. Our Foundation's outreach program provides students, teachers, and administrators with collateral material and local fund raising programs to assist each school with their efforts in obtaining the five-plaque set. The ultimate goal is to place these plaques in as many schools as possible across America.
On November 22, 2010 a dedication ceremony took place at Maggie L. Walker Governor's School in Richmond, Virginia to represent the official launch of the National Constitution Plaque Initiative. Key speakers at the ceremony were former Virginia Republican Governor, U.S. Senator George Allen, and former Virginia Democratic Governor and current Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tim Kaine.
History of the Plaques
For the first time in history, full size replicas of the Constitution and its Bill of Rights were created in a permanent form by casting bronze plaques that are true to the original documents down to the ink blots made by those who signed the parchment over 230 years ago.
These plaque sets were officially dedicated by Chief Justice Warren Burger and President Ronald Reagan on September 17, 1987 and were created by renowned artist Brett Livingstone Strong, the same artist who sculpted the National Monument to the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Presidency Monument.
Production, Dimensions and Cost
The Constitution and Bill of Rights plaques consist of a complete set of bronze etchings. Each set contains five bronze plaques, four of the Constitution representing its four separate pages and one of the Bill of Rights. The plaques of the Constitution each measure 25 ¾" wide by 32 ¾" high weighing 103 pounds. The plaque of the Bill of Rights measures 29 ¾" wide by 35 ¾" high and weighs 131 pounds.
Our foundation has an exclusive licensing agreement with Matthews International, a world renowned metal casting company headquartered in Pittsburgh. Matthews International is the only metal manufacturing company in the country capable of replicating the exquisite detail of these historic documents in solid bronze and producing them at an affordable price.
The cost of a full set of plaques is $8,500.00 and weighs almost 534 pounds of solid bronze. It includes: crating, shipping, mounting hardware, and professional installation. Also included in the cost is a 8"x 12" customized bronze Donor Plaque used to recognize the generous contributions from alumni, corporations, or civic organizations that have donated to this worthy cause. The Donor Plaque will be permanently installed next to the Constitution plaques. It takes approximately 4-6 weeks to produce each set.
Sponsor Grant Program
The Sponsor Grant Program has been developed to enable schools with smaller student bodies to participate in the Constitution Plaque Initiative. Matching grant funding may be available to schools once they have reached a specified level of funding, provided funds are available. A portion of our sponsorship fees from national and local sponsors is contributed to this program to help achieve the goal of placing a set of Constitution plaques in as many schools as possible across America.
