Founding-era documents to arrive in Van Nuys aboard ‘Freedom Plane’

A collection of rare founding-era U.S. documents will arrive in Van Nuys Monday aboard a touring “Freedom Plane,” marking the Southland stop of a nationwide exhibition tied to the country’s 250th anniversary.

The documents are scheduled to be flown Monday to Van Nuys Airport, where a welcome ceremony will be held, with the aircraft expected to land shortly before noon.

The event will include a ceremonial water cannon salute, musical performances and the transfer of the documents from the plane, organizers said.    

The traveling exhibition, organized by the National Archives, will be displayed at the USC Fisher Museum of Art from Friday through May 3, with free admission available by advance ticket at https://fisher.usc.edu/    

“These founding documents will offer members of our community — both at USC and throughout the region — an opportunity to reflect on the enduring principles underlying our constitutional democracy,” USC President Beong-Soo Kim said in a statement earlier this year.

The documents included in the exhibition are:

• Articles of Association (1774), an agreement adopted by the First Continental Congress urging American colonists to boycott British goods;    
• Oaths of Allegiance (1778), signed by Continental Army officers including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr during the Revolutionary War;
• William Stone engraving of the Declaration of Independence (1823), one of about 50 known official reproductions commissioned by John Quincy Adams to preserve the original text and signatures;    
• Treaty of Paris (1783), signed by American and British representatives formally recognizing the United States as an independent nation;
• Draft version of the U.S. Constitution (1787), known as the “secret printing,” featuring handwritten notes from delegates at the Constitutional Convention;
• State delegation votes approving the Constitution (1787), documenting the debates and final decisions that led to adoption of the governing framework; and
• Senate markup of the Bill of Rights, reflecting early revisions and deliberations over the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.    

“Americans across the country can bear witness to the people and principles that shaped our nation through the Freedom Plane National Tour,” Jim Byron, senior adviser to the Archivist of the United States, said in a statement. “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 exhibition is part of an eight-city national tour that began in Kansas City and will continue to cities including Houston, Denver, Miami and Seattle.