For the first time in history, some of the nation’s most treasured founding documents have left their secure vaults at the National Archives; not for a short trip across Washington, but for a cross-country journey by air.
The Freedom Plane National Tour, an initiative by the National Archives and Records Administration in partnership with the National Archives Foundation, launched on March 2, 2026, from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. A Boeing 737 wrapped in commemorative livery carried nine original and historically significant Founding-era documents westward to Kansas City, Missouri, marking the beginning of an eight-city tour running through August 2026.
The exhibition, titled Documents That Forged a Nation, was inspired by the 1976 Bicentennial Freedom Train and designed with a similar purpose: to bring rare pieces of American history to communities that may never make it to Washington, D.C. Admission is free at every stop.
The documents on board tell the story of a nation being built in real time. Among them are a rare 1823 Stone Engraving of the Declaration of Independence, one of roughly 50 known copies, and Oaths of Allegiance signed by George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and other Continental Army officers in 1778. Also traveling are the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which formally ended the Revolutionary War; a draft of the U.S. Constitution with handwritten notes; the Senate markup of the Bill of Rights; and the 1774 Articles of Association, which urged colonists to boycott British goods. These are documents that rarely move. Seeing them outside of Washington is, by any measure, a rare opportunity.
The tour runs through August, with stops at major museums in Kansas City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, Denver, Miami, Dearborn, and Seattle. Full tour dates, participating museums, and the complete document list are available at freedomplane.org.
