Handwriting the Constitution

Posted on 04 August 2025

Help us celebrate
National Constitution Day by joining
the Handwriting the Constitution project facilitated by local artist and graphic designer, Barbara Summer and Leslie Ihrig.

Handwriting the Constitution is a social art project begun in 2017 by artist Morgan O’Hara. It invites people from all walks of life to meet in public spaces to handwrite the US Constitution or other documents written to protect human rights and freedoms. This art practice was created so that people will know their rights, deepen their understanding of laws created to protect these rights, and to help resist negative thinking. To date approximately 2000 people have participated, both nationally and internationally.

Join us upstairs in the Carnegie Reading Room, find your favorite passage or discover one that speaks to you. We’ll provide copies of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. We’ll supply paper, pens, and markers…or bring your own supplies. All ages are welcome.

Why, you ask? This, from the founder of the project, Morgan O’Hara:

“Hand copying a document can produce an intimate connection to the text and its meaning. The hand writer may discover things about this document that they never knew, a passage that challenges or moves them. They may even leave with a deeper connection to the founders and the country, or even a sense of encouragement.

I began this project motivated by psychological necessity. I now see it as a social art practice. My hope is that it will become a movement of sorts, with sessions throughout the country.”

For more information on Handwriting the Constitution project please visit Handwriting the Constitution