Detail from painging of the signing of the Constitution of the United States by Thomas P. Rossiter.  Please click on the link below to view and resize full image.

Detail from painging of the signing of the Constitution of the United States by Thomas P. Rossiter.  Please click on the link below to view and resize full image.

Detail map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Overview map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

A: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

The Constitution of the United States

9/17/1787 to 6/21/1788
Detail from The Constitution of the United States. Please click on the link below to view and resize full image.

Detail from The Constitution of the United States. Please click on the link below to view and resize full image.

The Constitution of the United States was created on September 17, 1787 and ratified by conventions in 11 states by June 21, 1788. During the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia two drafts of the federal Constitution were printed, each in editions of sixty copies, for discussion by the delegates. The first draft was prepared by the Committee of Detail, and when that was revised, a second draft was prepared by the Committee of Style and Arrangement.  The final version was printed in 1789 by Francis Childs and John Swaine, Printers to the United States, as Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America, begun and Held at the City of New-York on Wednesday the Fourth of March in the Year M,DCC,LXXXIX, and of the Independence of the United States, the Thirteenth.

The original manuscript of the Constitution is preserved by the National Archives, Washington, D.C., where it is on public display.

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Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America, begun and Held at the City of New-York on Wednesday the Fourth of March in the Year M,DCC,LXXXIX, and of the Independence of the United States, the Thirteenth: