While the nation’s attention will be focused on commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States this year, 2026 is also a big year for Pennsylvania, which marks the 250th anniversary of its state constitution.
Pennsylvania’s 1776 constitution, crafted at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, is a little-known but historically significant and highly democratic document that influenced the American Revolution and the nation’s founding.
This spring and summer, Carpenters’ Hall will commemorate the Pennsylvania Provincial Conference and the Keystone State’s original constitution with several virtual lectures, four public town halls, and a virtual poll to solicit citizens’ opinions about how this living document should be interpreted today.
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According to a Philadelphia Citizen report, the special commemorative events will kick off with a virtual lecture from Dr. Christopher Pearl, associate professor and history department chair at Lycoming College, on colonial Pennsylvania politics and the Commonwealth’s influence on a young nation on Wednesday, March 18.
Dr. Joel Fishman, adjunct instructor at Duquesne University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law and co-director of its PA Constitution website, will present programs on Pennsylvania’s governing documents from 1682 to the present. Additionally, in-person town halls exploring this topic will take place on March 30 at WHYY, and on April 15 in Harrisburg, April 29 in Pittsburgh, and April 30 in Erie.
“I find the idea of how PA itself came into existence as a state, as a Commonwealth, during this incredibly volatile period in some ways just as fascinating as what was happening with the Continental Congress and the Declaration,” said Carpenters’ Hall Executive Director Michael Norris, who helped organize the commemorative series of programs, in a statement shared with The Philadelphia Citizen. “We want to make people aware of the history of the event, but also tap into what it means today and the importance and relevance of state constitutions, which we don’t often think about.”
Scholars describe Pennsylvania’s 1776 constitution as strikingly progressive for its time, granting voting rights to tax-paying men regardless of property ownership, and proposing a governor-less executive and unicameral legislature. The 1776 state constitution also included a Pennsylvania Declaration of Rights protecting freedoms such as religion and speech, and asserting that legitimate power rests with the people.