Rare Founding Documents Arrive at Kansas City WWI Museum
Kansas Citians will have the first opportunity to view rare founding documents as the nation celebrates its 250th birthday. The Freedom Plane National Tour will make the first of eight national stops on March 6-22 at the National World War I Museum and Memorial.
Visitors will have an opportunity to see a curated selection of original records from the National Archives and Records Administration collection on display together for the first time. Documents include:
- Original engraving of the Declaration of Independence, 1823. One of only about 50 known engraved copies of the Declaration of Independence, printed from a copperplate of the original. Commissioned by John Quincy Adams and made by engraver William J. Stone, the engraving captured the size, text, lettering and signatures of the original document.
- Articles of Association, 1774. Signed by all 53 delegates, the Articles of Association urged colonists to boycott British goods and was the Continental Congress’s first major unified act of resistance against Britain.
- George Washington’s, Alexander Hamilton’s and Aaron Burr’s Oaths of Allegiance, 1778. Oaths of Allegiance that all officers of the Continental Army signed during the Revolutionary War.
- Treaty of Paris, 1783: Signed by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, this Treaty with Great Britain formally recognized the United States as an independent nation.
- Secret printing of the Constitution in draft form, 1787. A rare copy of the U.S. Constitution in draft form, with the delegate’s handwritten notes made during the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
- Tally of votes approving the Constitution, 1787. The voting records of the Constitutional Convention reflecting the debates, resolutions and eventual vote on the final text that would become the Constitution.
“For the past 100 years, the Museum and Memorial has honored the courage and sacrifice of those who left our shores during WWI in defense of liberty and democracy, ideals forged in the very documents that founded our nation and will be on display here,” said Matthew Naylor, president and CEO of the museum.
The “Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation” exhibition will visit the following cities:
- Kansas City, MO: National WWI Museum and Memorial : Friday, March 6 – Sunday, March 22
- Atlanta, GA: Atlanta History Center : Friday, March 27 – Sunday, April 12
- Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California Fisher Museum of Art : Friday, April 17 – Sunday, May 3
- Houston, TX: Houston Museum of Natural Science : Friday, May 8 – Monday, May 25
- Denver, CO: History Colorado Center : Thursday, May 28 – Sunday, June 14
- Miami, FL: HistoryMiami Museum : Saturday, June 20 – Sunday, July 5
- Dearborn, MI: Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation : Thursday, July 9 – Sunday, July 26
- Seattle, WA: Museum of History & Industry : Thursday, July 30 – Sunday, August 16
Admission to the exhibit is free, but tickets are required. More information is available at www.theworldwar.org.
–Anita Widaman
