KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first time in history, several rare documents are traveling together across the country to mark America’s 250th birthday, and the first stop is in Kansas City.
Under overcast skies, a Boeing 737 painted with “Freedom Plane” livery landed Monday afternoon at Kansas City Downtown Airport - Wheeler Field.
The plane had taken off hours earlier from Reagan National Airport with very special cargo on board:
- An 1823 engraving of the Declaration of Independence
- The Articles of Association from 1774
- The oaths of office from George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr
- The Treaty of Paris
- A rare draft printing of the Constitution
- Tally of votes approving the Constitution
- Senate markup of the Bill of Rights
Members of the Kansas City Recruiting Battalion carefully unloaded a metal box from the Freedom plane and carried it down the air stairs into a waiting transport van.
The documents will be on display starting March 6 at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, and will run through March 22.
More information about the exhibit is available on the museum’s website.
The Freedom Plane National Tour draws inspiration from the Bicentennial Freedom Train that stopped at the General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kansas, in celebration of America’s 200th birthday from March 27-30, 1976.
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