LISTEN: Nine original founding era documents from the National Archives arrived in Atlanta Monday on the Freedom Plane. It's part of a traveling exhibition commemorating the country’s 250th anniversary. GPB's Devon Zwald reports.
Nine original founding era documents from the National Archives arrived in Atlanta on Monday.
A Senate markup of the Bill of Rights from 1789 and an 1823 engraving of the Declaration of Independence are two of the nine documents that flew in on the “Freedom Plane” from Kansas City, Mo.
Atlanta is the second destination on the eight-city traveling exhibition, "Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents that Forged a Nation," commemorating the country’s 250th anniversary.
"We see this as a central role of the archives is to share the documents and our shared history," said Patrick Madden, CEO of National Archives Foundation. "And what better way than to move them around the country during the special year."
The public can view the documents starting Friday at the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead.
Atlanta History Center president and CEO Sheffield Hale said it’s fitting that Atlanta was chosen for this exhibition.
“Today, Atlanta has become an emblem of the 21st century South, one that is dynamic and forward-looking,” Hale said, "a city that has spent generations doing the hard work of attempting to meet the ideals first set forth on paper 250 years ago."
More than 14,000 people have already registered with the Atlanta History Center to view the documents, Hale said.
They’ll be on display from March 27 until April 12.
