KC to get Declaration of Independence and other historic docs for U.S. 250th
One of only 50 known engraved copies of the Declaration of Independence, along with five other historic documents tied to the founding of the United States, are headed to Kansas City in celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.
Kansas City is to be one of eight U.S. cities to receive the “Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents that Forged a Nation” exhibit, the National Archives and Records Administration announced Tuesday.
Kansas City will is the first stop on the tour of the exhibit scheduled to go on display at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Penn Valley Park starting Friday, March 6 and running through Sunday, March 22.
“That the first stop on this tour is the National WWI Museum and Memorial is particularly meaningful, especially in our centennial year,” Matthew Naylor, President and CEO of the National WWI Museum and Memorial, said in a statement. “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 that will be on display here.”
Tickets for the exhibit are to become available on Friday, Feb. 6.
Besides the Declaration of Independence engraving, the other documents include:
- The 1774 Articles of Association: 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.
- From 1778, George Washington’s, Alexander Hamilton’s, and Aaron Burr’s Oaths of Allegiance: They are the oaths that all officers of the Continental Army signed during the Revolutionary War.
- The 1783 Treaty of Paris: signed by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, this Treaty with Great Britain formally recognized the United States as an independent nation.
- The 1787 Secret Printing of the U.S. Constitution in Draft Form: The document is a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution in draft form, with the delegate’s handwritten notes made during the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
- The 1787 Tally of Votes Approving the U.S. Constitution: The voting records of the Constitutional Convention reflect the debates, resolutions, and eventual vote on the final text that would become the U.S. Constitution.
“Americans across the country can bear witness to the people and principles that shaped our nation through the Freedom Plane National Tour,” said Senior Advisor to the Archivist of the United States Jim Byron. “There is no more noteworthy an occasion than America’s 250th birthday to share this history, to inspire our fellow Americans to champion our nation’s founding ideals into the future.”
The 2026 tour of artifacts, carried by a Boeing 737, is inspired by the Bicentennial Freedom Train, also known as the American Freedom Train, that toured through the 48 contiguous states in 1976 and stopped in Kansas City, Kansas from March 27 to March 30.
The train carried 500 historic artifacts that included George Washington’s copy of the Constitution and Judy Garland’s dress from the 1939 movie classic, “The Wizard of Oz.”
The 2026 tour, whose sponsors include The Boeing Co., Comcast Corp, Microsoft and P&G, runs through Aug. 16.
The tour’s other cities are Atlanta from March 27 to April 12; Los Angeles from April 17 to May 3; Houston from May 8 to May 25; Denver from May 28 to June 14, Miami from June 20 to July 5, Dearborn, Michigan from July 9 to July 26 and Seattle from July 30 to Aug. 16.
This story was originally published January 21, 2026 at 1:42 PM.
