DEARBORN, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday on July 4, history itself is boarding a Boeing 737 and heading across the country. The Freedom Plane National Tour, organized by the National Archives & Records Administration in partnership with the National Archives Foundation as part of the Freedom 250 celebration, is bringing some of the most sacred documents in American history directly to the people – and soon, to Dearborn.

Inspired by the historic Freedom Train of the Bicentennial era, the tour ensures that Americans don’t have to travel to Washington, D.C. to stand face-to-face with the documents that shaped our Republic.

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The Freedom Plane National Tour will make documents fundamental to America’s founding accessible to Americans across the country, making eight stops in different cities through August.

A rare glimpse at America’s founding.

When the Freedom Plane lands in Dearborn, visitors will have the opportunity to view nine extraordinary artifacts traveling together for the first time in history. Some of the documents include:

• The Original Engraving of the Declaration of Independence (1823)
• The Articles of Association (1774)
• George Washington’s, Alexander Hamilton’s, and Aaron Burr’s Oaths of Allegiance (1778) • The Treaty of Paris (1783)
• The Secret Printing of the Constitution in Draft Form (1787)
• The Tally of Votes Approving the Constitution (1787)
• The Senate Mark-up of the Bill of Rights (1789)

These documents won’t be replicas. They are the ink-and-parchment foundations of liberty – the very documents that declared independence, secured victory, and enshrined the freedoms Americans still cherish today.

Bringing history home.

The tour’s mission is simple but powerful: America’s founding story belongs to every American. From Kansas City to Atlanta, Los Angeles to Houston – and eventually Dearborn – this cross-country journey underscores a timeless truth: liberty is not confined to a museum case in the nation’s capital. It lives in communities across the country.

As the Freedom Plane makes its way to Michigan, it will offer Dearborn families, students, veterans, and citizens a rare and inspiring opportunity – to stand inches away from the documents that launched the greatest experiment in self-government the world has ever known. The Dearborn stop is scheduled for July 9 through 26 at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.