The Freedom Plane National Tour is coming to Seattle! This is a free exhibit put on by the National Archives and America’s 250th and Seattle will be the last stop for this 8 city tour across the nation for these documents that forged the United States before they return to Washington DC. The documents travel from city to city in a Boeing 737 with Freedom Plane livery.
The original documents that will be featured on this tour at the MOHAI from July 30-August 16th are:
- The Declaration of Independence (1823 engraving by William Stone)
- Articles of Association (1774)
- Oaths of Allegiance (1778), signed by George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr
- Treaty of Paris (1783)
- A rare printing of the Constitution (1787) with handwritten notes
- Early votes approving the Constitution
- Senate markup of the Bill of Rights (1789)
Most of these documents have never been displayed together before and it’s incredible that they are all being flown from city to city beyond Washington DC giving more people opportunities to see them for the very first time. You can get free reserved-time tickets through this link on the MOHAI website
And if you haven’t visited the MOHAI in a while you might stop in and visit
If you’re in the South Lake Union area for the Freedom Plane Tour you might want to add a visit the MOHAI too. Have you ever been to this museum? (The museum itself has been around since the 1950’s but only in its South Lake Union location since 2012). We went to this museum a lot when my kids were younger and I have often purchased the MOHAI Plus membership because it includes reciprocal benefits with NARM (make sure you verify that it still does this before you purchase on the MOHAI website if this is important to you too) that has been really beneficial for visiting museums in other places when we travel. (This not only enhances our trips but has saved us a lot of money when traveling with kids as well!)
At the MOHAI there is a relatively new exhibit (opened the first week of July 2026) called For Which It Stands: The Many Threads of the American Flag that I checked out last week that also explores the idea of what it means to be American through flags. One of the flags in the exhibit is a flag that was carried by the “Boys in the Boat” in 1936. (I linked to a cool tour at the UW that I inadvertently found too). There is also an interactive weaving part of this exhibit that I need to go back and see. This exhibit will be on display at the MOHAI through mid November 2026. I learned recently that the MOHAI has over 6000000 artifact and images of historical significance to Washington State which also explains why every time I visit I learn something new.
There is No Single American Story: Clint Smith – July 22, 2026
The MOHAI is also hosting a lecture on July 22, 2026 with best-selling author Clint Smith about how history is remembered and interpreted. You can get tickets for the event and learn more about it on the MOHAI website too.
Have you heard of the Freedom Plane Tour coming to Seattle? I made sure to register for tickets and I’ll update this page after I visit. I wonder if we’ll be able to see the plane when it lands here too!
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)