Constitution Episodes

The State of the Union address may be an annual tradition now, but when Washington prepared to give his address in 1790, the expectations weighed heavily upon him. To prepare for this momentous occasion, Washington turned, pen in hand, back to the Constitution itself. In this episode of The Secrets of Washington's Archives, Dr. Douglas Bradburn, President & CEO of George Washington's Mount Vernon, explores Washington's own copy of the Constitution contained within a volume of the first Acts of Congress. Within this extraordinary text, we see Washington's own handwritten notes on what it meant to be president.

Washington bought a copy of Don Quixote on the last day of the Constitutional Convention. But what is so significant about this Spanish story? And what did Benjamin Franklin and the Spanish ambassador have to do with it? In this episode, Dr. Douglas Bradburn, President & CEO of George Washington's Mount Vernon, tells us the story behind two versions of this spectacular tale.