This year's Founder's Award is fast approaching! Honoring National Book Award-winner James McBride, the annual gala will feature a sneak peek at HSP's new exhibit at the National Constitution Center, a performance by McBride's Good Lord Bird Band, and much more.

(Tickets are still available, register here.)

As we count down till Wednesday at 6:00 p.m., check out the media buzz Founder's and the new American Treasures exhibit:

• HSP's Lynette Zimmerman joins Marilyn Russell's Remarkable Women on WOGL-FM to tell the story of the historical society and the 2017 Founder's Award.
• HSP's Charles Cullen and Lee Arnold sat down with NBC 10 Philadelphia's Tracy Davidson to discuss the breadth and depth of HSP's collections, Founder's Award honoree James McBride, and what to expect at the American Treasures exhibit.
• "It is not insignificant that they went from making a list of the 13 states of the union to saying 'we, the people of the United States,' because that means they had a change of heart. They recognized the need to cease to be seen as independent states and to be seen as a union. That's very significant, it's not just a cosmetic change." The American Treasures exhibit and HSP's collaboration with NCC is featured in AL DÍA News.
• "Much of what the Constitution is came from this committee. You can't see it without these drafts. They don't exist anywhere else, except right here." HSP's Charles Cullen speaks with PhillyVoice's John Kopp to discuss the importance of the handwritten drafts featured in the American Treasures exhibit. 

This year's Founder's Award dinner will be held on May 3, 2017, at the National Constitution Center. This year, HSP will honor National Book Award Winner James McBride with the Founder’s Award and HSP Board Member Alice L. George and Library Company of Philadelphia Director Emeritus John Van Horne with the Heritage Award.

James McBride is an author, musician, and screenwriter. His landmark memoir, The Color of Water, remained on The New York Times Best Sellers list for two years. It is considered an American classic and is read in schools and universities across the United States. His debut novel, Miracle at St. Anna, was adapted into a major motion picture directed by American film icon Spike Lee. It was released by Disney/Touchstone in September 2008. McBride wrote the script for Miracle at St. Anna, and co-wrote Spike Lee's 2012 Red Hook Summer. His latest novel, The Good Lord Bird, about American revolutionary John Brown, is the winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction.

The annual gala will take place at the National Constitution Center beginning at 6 p.m. with a cocktail reception followed by a musical performance of the story of John Brown by James McBride and the Good Lord Bird Band, an awards ceremony, dinner, and an appeal auction by George McNeely.

HSP,  in partnership with the National Constitution Center, is unveiling American Treasures: Documenting the Nation’s Founding, an exhibit illuminating the founding era through priceless drafts of the U.S. Constitution, including Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson’s own handwritten drafts. Founder's Award attendees will have the opportunity to tour the new exhibit during the evening's celebrations. The exhibit will not be open to the public until May 4.

A sneak peek of the exhibit will be available to all attendees of this year's Founder's Award! The funds raised at this event go directly toward supporting HSP’s mission of inspiring individuals and organizations to create a better future through historical understanding.

The Event Chairs are J. Rudy Lewis and Dorothy Mather Ix. Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest are serving as Honorary Co-chairs.

About the Founder's Award

HSP seeks not only to enrich and maintain the historical record, but also to champion history’s uses and enhance its value to the public. As part of its 175th anniversary celebration, HSP established the Founder’s Award for Exemplary Service to History to recognize leaders in these causes. The medal was commissioned with the assistance of Lea Aspinwall Cadwalader, in memory of her husband John Cadwalader, a longtime HSP councilor. The face of the medal is based on Alexander Milne Calder’s model for the statue of William Penn atop Philadelphia’s City Hall.