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History buffs, political junkies and anyone who’s ever muttered “We the People” under their breath, take note: One of the rarest documents in American history will be making a cameo in Queens this weekend—and you can see it for free.
From September 19 to 21, the King Manor Museum in Jamaica will host a public exhibition of an extraordinarily rare printed draft of the U.S. Constitution, on loan from Christie’s. This isn’t just any draft, either. It’s the very first version to use the now-iconic words “We the People of the United States” instead of a laundry list of individual states. Even more, this copy belonged to Rufus King, a Founding Father, U.S. senator and abolitionist whose former home is now the very museum staging the show.
The draft bears King’s own handwritten edits—nerdy details that would eventually shape the final document ratified in 1787. Among them: swapping a clunky preposition in the preamble, adding “affirmation” for Quakers unwilling to swear oaths and lowering the bar for Congress to override a presidential veto from three-fourths to two-thirds. Not exactly casual margin notes.
“It’s fantastic to be able to show this document in the home of the man who wrote it,” said Kelsey Brow, executive director of the King Manor Museum. “A document of this caliber is incredibly rare, and even rarer to be on display in a small museum like King Manor.”
How rare are we talking? Of the 60 copies printed for the Constitutional Convention, only 12 are known to survive and nearly all of them are locked away in institutions like the Library of Congress or the National Archives. King’s version is the first to surface at auction in more than 40 years and it will be sold at Christie’s in January as part of its annual Americana sale. Until then, Queens gets bragging rights.
The exhibition coincides with National Constitution Day and includes tours of King’s historic home, where school groups and the public alike can step straight into the room where the Founding Father once worked. It’s a fleeting moment, but one that bridges 1787 and 2025 in surprisingly tangible fashion.
Catch it while you can—after Sunday, this slice of American history will disappear back into the auction pipeline, bound for a new chapter in private hands.