Inspired by National Archives Rotunda mural artist Barry Faulkner's representation of President of the Convention George Washington at the time of the Constitutional Convention, we are pleased to offer our Tavern Mug. Raise a toast to the 1788 ratification of the Constitution, to the pursuit of a more perfect union and to our freedoms as Americans, when you enjoy a frothy beverage, a hot one, or even a cup of soup from this custom piece.

Barry Faulkner’s large-scale murals, on permanent display in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom at the National Archives Building, depict fictional scenes of the presentation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Faulkner’s 1936 rendition of the Constitutional Convention— coinciding with the opening of the National Archives—portrays the delegates standing in an ancient Roman setting rather than sitting in a Philadelphia assembly hall. The mural shows James Madison offering the final draft of the Constitution to George Washington, President of the Convention. Faulkner’s portrait of the Framers of the Constitution was not originally well received. One commentator said he “must have been reading Roman history and not American history.”