Virtual tour series of the First Amendment Museum
Visit the Museum from the comfort of your own home! Join Max, our Manager of Visitor Experiences, as he introduces you to the First Amendment Museum – and the First Amendment – in our virtual tour series.
Each episode explores a different room in the Museum, as well as a different concept of the First Amendment.
Part 1: Introduction to the First Amendment Museum
Join Max as he introduces you to the First Amendment Museum, a relatively new non-partisan, non-profit located in the heart of the historic Capitol District of Augusta, Maine.
Part 2: The First Amendment as a Whole
Have you ever read the First Amendment as a whole? Here, in the parlor, we discuss the 45 words of the First Amendment and the story it tells, in part two of our virtual tour through the First Amendment Museum.
Part 3: Religious Freedom and Intolerance
Freedom of religion, the first freedom found in the First Amendment, is arguably the most important freedom since it protects our right to think. Learn more about this freedom and the history of religious proliferation – as well as intolerance – in the United States.
Part 4: Activism and the First Amendment
Let’s talk about activism. Learn about the personal connection the museum has to an activist who used her First Amendment freedoms to advance women’s suffrage.
Part 5: Temporary Exhibition Gallery
In our temporary exhibition gallery, different exhibits, relating to various First Amendment topics, come and go on a rotating basis. We currently have a collection of original prints of political cartoons by Ben Brown for the now-defunct Institute for First Amendment Studies.
Part 6: Youth & The First Amendment
We discuss the First Amendment’s often complicated relationship with young people. Although the Constitution and Bill of Rights apply to American citizens from the moment they’re born, young people are considered a “special class” that has “unique First Amendment restrictions.”
Part 7: The Supreme Court
The forty-five words of the First Amendment are incredibly vague. When we have questions about what our freedoms mean and what they look like in the real world, we take these questions to the court system, and sometimes even the Supreme Court.
Part 8: Censorship
We will be exploring how censorship can exist in a country like the United States which has such strong protections on freedom of expression thanks to the First Amendment. Let’s learn more about the role that censorship has played in the United States!
Part 9: Petition
We will be exploring how censorship can exist in a country like the United Learn all about the fifth and final freedom found in the First Amendment: the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Part 10: Press
As the press expands into different mediums, it’s become harder to define what or who even is the press and what is the difference between freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the 2020s.
Stay tuned as more episodes of the Virtual Tour are released. Sign up for our e-newsletter to be alerted when the next one drops!