National Archives Sends Founding Documents on Multi‑City Freedom Plane Tour for 250th Anniversary

The National Archives is sending some of the nation’s most important founding‑era records on a first‑of‑its‑kind 'Freedom Plane' tour starting Monday, March 2, 2026, as part of the United States’ 250th anniversary commemorations. Normally kept in tightly controlled vaults in Washington, D.C., items like the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the 1774 Articles of Association, 1778 Oaths of Allegiance signed by George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, a rare 1823 engraving of the Declaration of Independence and a draft U.S. Constitution with handwritten notes will travel by specially outfitted Boeing 737 to museums in at least eight cities, beginning at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. Admission to see the documents will be free, and early demand is strong, with Kansas City schools already booking visits for more than 5,000 students. The tour is one pillar of a crowded Semiquincentennial calendar that also includes mobile museums, a planned 'Great American State Fair' on the National Mall, and a White House‑backed 'Patriot Games' sports event featuring high‑school athletes and a UFC fight, coordinated between the congressionally chartered America 250 commission and the separate White House‑run Freedom 250 initiative. The overlapping efforts have already drawn some criticism in Washington as duplicative, but for local communities the traveling archives offer a rare chance to see primary documents that shaped the country without traveling to the capital.