Fakes on a Plane

USC's Fisher Museum of Art will host the set of Founders' documents being circulated by the National Archives for the nation's 250th anniversary. The so-called Freedom Plane National Tour is to make brief visits to museums in eight cities. The name evokes the Bicentennial's Freedom Train, a locomotive carrying a blockbuster exhibit of famous documents and cultural artifacts. The current show is much more limited in scope, centering on eight Revolutionary period documents, none of them especially famous. The main attraction is an 1823 engraved replica of the Declaration of Independence, made because the ink of the 1776 original was fading. More interesting is a 1787 draft copy of the Constitution with handwritten annotations. But the original Declaration and Constitution that draw crowds to DC aren't in the show. The National Archives—whose acting director, Marco Rubio, has a full plate—must be hoping that outside-the-beltway audiences won't care.

The exhibition does have the original 1783 Treaty of Paris, in which Britain first recognized the U.S. nation, and an 1787 tally of votes from the Constitutional Convention. Hamilton fans will find oaths of allegiance signed by Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and George Washington.

"Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation" will be at the Fisher Museum Apr. 17 to May 3, 2026.

Not the Declaration of Independence: William J. Stone's 1823 engraved deepfake of the famous document, made 47 years later. On loan from David M. Rubenstein