Some of the United States' most treasured founding-era documents have made their way to Houston via private airplane.
Monday's welcome ceremony at William P. Hobby Airport included a water cannon salute and a performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by theSummer Creek High School Choir.
Nine historic documents were flown from Los Angeles to Houston on Monday as part of the so-called "Freedom Plane National Tour," which celebrates the 250th anniversary of the United States' founding. The documents are now being prepared by staff at the Houston Museum of Natural Science to be on display to the public starting this Friday.
Houston is the fourth stop on an eight-city tour and the only stop in Texas.
"It’s only fitting that this traveling exhibition carrying such important pieces of American history finds a home here in one of the most dynamic and diverse communities in the country," Joel Bartsh, CEO of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, said at the arrival ceremony.
Maureen McDonald is a special assistant to the archivist with the National Archives and was the exhibit curator tasked with safeguarding the documents on their travels Monday. She said it’s a rare opportunity to see the documents up close without booking a trip to Washington D.C.
"And these documents aren't always on display even in Washington," McDonald said. "We brought them out of the vault to do this special tour."
The documents include George Washington's Oath of Allegiance, the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution and formally recognized the U.S. as an independent nation, and a rare annotated draft of the U.S. Constitution (see below for the full list of documents).
To prepare the documents as they whip around the country, handlers encased the documents in multiple layers of protection – first packed in Mylar, then matted, then sealed in Plexiglass and then slipped inside a silica case. The layers work together to absorb humidity and create a steady environment to safeguard the fragile papers.
"They’re sort of in their own sort of micro climate within their encasement," McDonald said.
In 1947, some other more high-profile founding-era documents, including the Bill of Rights and the Emancipation Proclamation, embarked on a similar but much more strenuous train tour. The 16 month-tour hit 300 cities across 48 states. Approximately 3.5 million viewers got a chance to see them on their travels.
McDonald said those more well-known documents are too fragile to travel today.
"If you came to Washington and saw the Bill of Rights, it is quite faded, and that has a lot to do with its travels on the train because of the change in temperatures and climate." McDonald said. "They just didn’t know back then how to mitigate it like we do today."
Museum staff in Houston will have to keep the documents at around 70 degrees Fahrenheit and no more than 45% humidity. They're sensitive to light as well, so every specification needs to be calculated carefully and consistently maintained.
For months, the Houston Museum of Natural Science has been preparing to house the display.
"It's an ongoing job for museums to make sure that we protect the artifacts or specimens for future use way down the line, well after we are gone," Dirk Van Tuerenhout said.
Tuerenhout has been with the museum for nearly 30 years as both the curator of anthropology and director of collections.
For him, the traveling exhibit coming to Houston is an honor. He said though the documents are small, roughly the size of a postcard, they carry incredible significance.
"You see the signatures of these people that you are familiar with from school and museums and it's like one degree of separation," Tuerenhout said. "Gives me a little bit of goosebumps to see these documents that were signed by people that otherwise they’re far moved in time and space, and now they’re here."
Here's the full list of documents on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science from May 8-25:
- William Stone Engraving of the Declaration of Independence, 1823: One of 200 exact replicas of the Declaration of Independence created in the early 19th century, and one of 50 known to still exist.
- Articles of Association, 1774: The First Continental Congress’ agreement to boycott British goods.
- George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr’s Oaths of Allegiance, 1778: Nearly two years into the American Revolution, Congress ordered all Continental Army officers to take an oath of allegiance to the U.S. More than 1,000 survive, including these from prominent American leaders.
- Treaty of Paris, 1783: The treaty signed by the United States and Britain, formally recognizing the U.S. as an independent nation.
- David Brearley’s Secret Printing of the Constitution, 1787: One copy of the draft for the U.S. Constitution provided to delegates of the Constitutional Convention.
- State Delegation Votes Approving the Constitution, 1787: The roster of the votes to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
- Senate Markup of the Bill of Rights, 1789: The Senate’s annotations and markup to what became the Bill of Rights.
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