Additional Resources

This page contains a curated list of resources on the history of the Pennsylvania Constitution. To the extent possible, links are to publicly accessible copies of the sources listed. Where that is not possible, the link directs to an online database.

Books

Rosalind L. Branning, Pennsylvania Constitutional Development (1960)

Ken Gormley & Joy G. McNally, The Pennsylvania Constitution: A Treatise on Rights and Liberties (2020)

Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Whose constitution is it anyway? : A primer on selected topics of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the United States Constitution (2012)

J. Paul Selsam, The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776: A Study in Revolutionary Democracy (1936)

Robert E. Woodside, Pennsylvania Constitutional Law (1985)

Articles

Angus Harwood Brown, The Pennsylvania Council of Censors and the Debate on the Guardian of the Constitution in the Early United States, 64 Am. J. Legal Hist. 1 (2024)

Seth F. Kreimer, Still Living After Fifty Years: A Census of Judicial Review Under the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1968, 71 Rutgers L. Rev. 287 (2018)

John P. Krill, Jr., Michael R. Dimino, Sr., & Michelle J. Atherton, The Rules of the Game: How the Constitution Affects Lawmaking in Pennsylvania, 3 The Temple Papers on the Pennsylvania General Assembly (2012)

Bruce Ledewitz, Summary of Pennsylvania Constitutional Law, PA Constitution

Robert Sidman, Constitutional Revision in Pennsylvania—Problems and Procedures, 71 W. Va. L. Rev. (1969)

Constitutional Review Commission, Pennsylvania’s Constitution: A Brief History, Pennsylvania Bar Association

Convention Records

1776

Bill of Rights and Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Minutes of the 1776 Convention

1789-90

Text of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Minutes of the 1789-1790 Convention: (Part 1) (Part 2)

1837-38

Journal of the Constitutional Convention of 1837-1838 (original) (published, vol. 1)

1872-73

The Constitutional Convention of 1872-1873

Journal of the Convention to Amend the Constitution, 1872-1873: Volume 1 (November 27, 1872 - June 19, 1873) - Volume 2 (June 20 - December 27, 1873)

1967-68

Journal of the Constitutional Convention, 1967-1968: Volume 1 (December 1, 1967 – February 9, 1968) - Volume 2 (February 12 – 29, 1968)

Records of the 1967-68 Convention

Government Publications

Pennsylvania Manual

Current Edition of Pennsylvania Manual

Pennsylvania State Archives

Additional Databases

Pennsylvania Constitution, Duquesne University

The Constitution of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania General Assembly

Historical Society of Pennsylvania