Freedom Plane tour brings historic founding documents to the Atlanta History Center

For the first time, nine of the United States' founding documents have made it to Atlanta.

The exhibition is part of the National Archives' Freedom Plane National Tour.

The documents are usually kept in the archives in Washington, D.C., but they're in Atlanta to commemorate America's 250th birthday.

"It is the first time this exhibition and these documents have ever traveled out of Washington," National Archives Foundation CEO Patrick Madden said.

The documents include an 1823 engraving of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Association, and a rare draft of the Constitution.

"The National Archives is really a gift to the nation as part of the 250th anniversary. This is our chance to share these historic founding-era documents with the rest of the nation," Madden said.

Atlanta is one of eight cities that are part of the "Documents That Forged a Nation" tour, which gives people a chance to view the documents.

"There is a copy of the Declaration of Independence from 1823, where you can see all of the founders' signatures," Madden said.

The National Guard unloaded the documents from the plane and into a van headed to the Atlanta History Museum. The vintage documents will be available to the public for free from March 27 to April 12.

Those interested have to register in advance on the museum's website.

Atlanta History Museum CEO Sheffield Hale said it's a huge honor to get the documents.

"We're the only one in the original 13 colonies to get these archival documents," Hale said.

The documents are more than 200 years old.

"They're going to have to be in special temperature controls, which we have, and humidity. We have to keep the light off of them. There's only a certain amount of time during the day they can be shown," Hale said.

Once the documents leave Atlanta in April, the next stop on the tour is Los Angeles.