You won’t have to visit the National Archives in Washington, D.C. to see some of the documents that our country was built upon.
As part of the 250th festivities, the Freedom Plane will be zooming around the U.S. to take at least 10 documents to eight cities, allowing people to see how the country came to be, the National Archives announced.
The journey is inspired by the trip that the Declaration of Independence made from D.C. to Philadelphia in 1876. It was one of the last times the document left its secure home at the Archives.
It is also inspired by the American Freedom Train, which traversed the country for 15 months for the Bicentennial in 1976, The New York Times reported.
During that event, the train visited 138 cities and had more than seven million visitors who got to see 500 artifacts from 200 years of American history, including:
- Jefferson’s handwritten draft of the Declaration of Independence
- Judy Garland’s “The Wizard of Oz” dress
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s pulpit
- Moon rock
This time, the National Archives and Records Administration said the Freedom Plane will replace the train and will carry documents from the 18th century “Founding Era,” the Times reported
The tour is being called “Documents That Forged a Nation.”
They will be “all original, no facsimiles, no copies — all irreplaceable and all instructive,” according to James Byron, senior advisor to acting archivist, Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
It will first stop at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, from March 6 to March 22.
It will also make stops in:
- Atlanta History Center, Atlanta
- University of Southern California Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles
- Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston
- History Colorado Center, Denver
- HistoryMiami Museum, Miami
- Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, Dearborn, Michigan
- Museum of History & Industry, Seattle
The documents include:
- The Stone engraving, which was made on copperplate, of the Declaration from 1823
- Articles of Association from 1774
- Oaths of allegiance to the Continental Army from George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr from Valley Forge in 1778
- 1783 Treaty of Paris signed by John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin and British negotiator David Hartley
- Draft of the Constitution and a tally of votes approving it
The exhibition will be free, but tickets may be needed. You’re instructed to visit the venues’ websites or the museums for ticket information.
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