With little to show but enthusiasm, the development staff at the National Constitution Center managed to fund a dream.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

One year, 37 corpses and $5 million later, construction continued.

The setback was frustrating, but it gave the small group of fundraisers charged with the task of financing the project more time to spread the word — not that they hadn’t had plenty of time already.

The NCC was founded in 1988, after the bicentennial of the Constitution, when Congress issued a charter for it to 1) form a program of outreach and education about the Constitution and 2) build a museum dedicated to the country’s most important document.