HOUSTON, Texas — The National Archives and Records Administration will bring several historic documents from early American history to the Houston Museum of Natural Science from May 8 to May 25 as part of a national tour marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
The agency is conducting the “Freedom Plane National Tour,” which will transport nine historic documents to eight U.S. cities, including Houston. The documents will travel aboard a Boeing 737 dubbed the “Freedom Plane.”
Visitors in Houston will be able to view several historic records, including an original copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris (1783) that ended the American Revolution, and an oath of allegiance signed by George Washington.
The documents are currently on display in Kansas City, Missouri, and will travel to Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, Denver, Miami, Dearborn, Michigan, and Seattle.
The tour commemorates the nation’s semiquincentennial, marking 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Officials said Houston is the only city in Texas selected as a stop on the tour.
According to the museum, the exhibit will include nine historical documents:
- The 1823 William Stone engraving of the Declaration of Independence, one of 200 replicas produced in the early 19th century.
- The Articles of Association (1774), which recorded the First Continental Congress agreement to boycott British goods.
- Oaths of allegiance signed in 1778 by George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr during the American Revolution.
- The Treaty of Paris (1783), which formally recognized U.S. independence from United Kingdom.
- David Brearley’s secret printing of the United States Constitution in 1787 for delegates of the Constitutional Convention.
- The record of state delegation votes approving the Constitution in 1787.
- The Senate’s markup of the United States Bill of Rights in 1789.
A similar traveling exhibit occurred before the nation’s bicentennial in 1976, when the American Freedom Train carried historical artifacts to more than 100 cities across the country.
