Some of the documents that helped shape the United States are temporarily leaving Washington, D.C., ahead of America’s 250th anniversary, giving many Americans a rare chance to see them in person.

The "Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation" – launched by The National Archives – is bringing founding-era records out of the nation’s capital and into communities across the country.

The nationwide tour kicked off Friday at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, where visitors can walk through a specially prepared exhibit room to see several historic documents up close.

The historical records are traveling around the country on what organizers call the Freedom Plane, a specially marked aircraft for the tour.

The documents are displayed under carefully controlled conditions in a dimly lit room designed to protect the centuries-old paper.

"We have them wrapped in mylar and then they are also encapsulated with plexiglass," Kratzer said. "So basically they’re in their own microclimates."

The exhibit tells the story of the nation’s founding, tracing the events that led to the creation of the United States government.

"This exhibit itself is really a history of the American Revolution, the creation of our government and then the creation of the Bill of Rights within one small space," Kratzer said.

Museum leaders say the exhibit brings together pieces of American history that many people have only read about in textbooks.

"These fundamental documents record all those happenings as our forebears sought to define who we were and who we wanted to be as Americans," said Matthew Naylor, president and CEO of the National World War I Museum and Memorial.

Kansas City was chosen as the starting point for the national tour, a decision Naylor said highlights the importance of bringing the exhibit to communities beyond the East Coast.

"Why not for them to be in the heartland, in the Midwest as the beginning of this tour," Naylor said.

The exhibit will remain in Kansas City through March 22 before the tour moves to Atlanta and other cities across the country. It will end in Seattle in August.

A full schedule of tour stops and dates is available on the National Archives website.