Constitution Day (officially observed this year on September 18) commemorates the formation and signing of the Constitution on September 17, 1787.  On this date, after fewer than one hundred working days, thirty-nine of the Philadelphia Convention’s delegates signed the Constitution, the longest surviving written charter of government.

Of the three delegates from New York, only Alexander Hamilton participated through to the end and affixed his name.  The other New York delegates, John Lansing, Jr. and Robert Yates, left after six weeks because they opposed the movement to consolidate the United States into one government.

The original Constitution is held at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. but you can pick up your own pocket-copy at the library’s reference desk!