America’s founding documents fly out of nation’s capital for first time on the freedom plane
By Alexandra Skores, CNN
Washington, DC (CNN) — For the first time in United States history, several of the country’s founding documents will travel the skies to visit multiple cities on their own jet in honor of the nation’s founding.
“This initiative is all about bringing our history to life, capturing the national mood of celebration, and sending America’s big birthday party from the nation’s capital to the very heart of America,” said Monica Crowley, chief of protocol of the US.
The Freedom Plane took off Monday from a cold and windy Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for its first stop in Kansas City, Missouri. The documents will travel to eight cities through August.
Among the documents: an original engraving of the Declaration of Independence; George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr’s Oaths of Allegiance and the Treaty of Paris which ended the American Revolution.
“Safety and security of the documents has been paramount from the point when this tour was first conceived,” said Jim Byron, with the National Archives while standing in front of the plane. “They stay typically in secured vaults in the National Archives, and they don’t they don’t come out very often.”
The Freedom Plane is a Boeing 737-7BC aircraft, manufactured in the year 2000 and owned by Boeing, which is partnering with the National Archives for the tour.
“This feels different this morning walking up to the airplane,” Boeing pilot Joe Seymour said before he took off in the plane. “You think about the names that are on these documents, the signatures, George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin. These are the founding fathers of the United States and so there’s a great pride that comes with that.”
The plane is a modernized homage to the Freedom Train of 1976, which took founding documents on tour around the country for the bicentennial.
“We know that not everybody’s going to be able to come and see (the documents) in Washington DC,” Byron said. “So to be able to take those right up to people’s cities and towns and communities is a once in a generation opportunity.”
The 737 family of airplanes has carried more than 30 million passengers over the last 60 years, according to the manufacturer, but never has carried documents like these.
Freedom Tour city visits below.
- 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 (MOHAI): Thursday, July 30 – Sunday, August 16
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