FREEDOM PLANE TOUR STOP IN DETROIT

In honor of America's 250th anniversary as a nation, The National Archives and Records Administration is hosting a traveling exhibit called FREEDOM PLANE: NATIONAL TOUR being flown around the country this year to be displayed at a select number of museums. THE HENRY FORD in Dearborn, Michigan will be hosting this exhibit which includes historic documents relevant to the founding of the country from July 9 through the 26th. Being a history geek, I made sure to stop by and check it out!

Here is what is on display:

ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION (1774)

Signed by al 53 delegates, the Articles of Association urged colonists to boycott British goods and was the Continental Congress's first major unified act of resistance.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, ALEXANDER HAMILTON & AARON BURR'S OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE (1778)

Loyalty pledges accepting military commissions 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.

DRAFT COPY OF THE CONSTITUTION (1787)

A rare copy of the U.S. Constitution in draft form with the delegates' handwritten notes made during the Constitutional Convention.

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.

ORIGINAL GRAVING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (1823)

One of 50 known engraved copies of the Declaration of Independence printed from a copperplate of the original document. Commissioned by President John Quincy Adams the engraving captures the size, text, lettering and signatures of the original document.

I always get a sense of awe getting a firsthand glimpse of authentic autographs of noteworthy people in history. Being close up to documents that literally were in the hands of these people and document the moment with their signatures provides a sense of being in the presence of real people expanding a sense of recognition of them being more than just references in history books. Attending this exhibit was a nice way to commemorate America's 250th birthday and I'm glad to have been able to celebrate this milestone year by stopping by The Henry Ford's Freedom Plane tour stop.

There is a lot more to see than this temporary exhibit at The Henry Ford. Step into more than 300 years of American ingenuity at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan—the nation's premier indoor-outdoor history destination. Spanning a sprawling 250-acre campus, this iconic attraction lets you walk through history by boarding the actual Rosa Parks bus, seeing Abraham Lincoln’s theater chair, and exploring Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory. Whether you are riding a vintage Model T through the living-history streets of Greenfield Village, marveling at groundbreaking presidential limousines in The Henry Ford Museum, or witnessing modern manufacturing live on the Ford Rouge Factory Tour, every corner sparks curiosity and celebrates the spirit of human progress.