OPA-LOCKA, FLA. (WSVN) - Miami was selected as one of the homes of a special delivery to celebrate a major milestone for the United States.
On Monday, a group of documents that helped forge our nation arrived at Opa-locka Executive Airport on a specially decorated Boeing 737.
These special documents, which include an original engraving of the Declaration of Independence and a rare draft copy of the Constitution with notations and oaths of allegiance signed by Founding Fathers George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr, will be on display at the Museum of Miami.
“It was not people that agreed on everything, but they actually negotiated and sacrificed and convened to make a promise, really of an experiment in self-government that had never existed before,” said Natalia Crujeiras, CEO of the Museum of Miami.
It will be part of an eight-city landmark traveling exhibition by the National Archives called “Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation.”
Carefully encased in boxes and kept under climate-controlled conditions, staff offloaded the nine documents that stitch together the U.S.’ early story. Once on the ground, the documents were loaded into a van and headed to the downtown museum.
“You’re really feeling the spirit, the ideas, the boldness of what the founders really were doing,” said Patrick Madden, CEO of National Archives Foundation.
Other documents included in the group: a treaty that ended the Revolutionary War and a draft of the Bill of Rights, complete with scratch-outs and scribbles, as contributors refined what would become the First Amendment.
The scribbles are a common theme throughout these early papers, as this group of farmers, inventors, lawyers, merchants, and others pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the new nation they were crafting.
“There was a lot of editing. Even Jefferson, who drafted the Declaration, a couple of his friends came in and made edits to it. He wasn’t too happy about it,” said Madden.
“We have a country that has always been becoming. And what is it that they dreamed of? And what is that they aspire to?” said Crujeiras.
The Museum of Miami will host this exhibition from June 20 through July 5.
For more information on the tour, click here.
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