The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars held a design competition for an award statue to honor the contributions of individuals and organizations that have supported the Presidential Scholars and Distinguished Teachers programs. Berlin's winning design envisioned the antique quill and inkwell to be "a proud national symbol of academic and artistic excellence, in part because the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted and signed with quill pens, and because the feather quill comes from the American Eagle." Berlin found the model for the inkwell in the furniture collection of the Metropolitan Museum in NYC and the "perfect feather" at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.