National Archives to loan historic documents to Presidential Libraries across the country, to support America’s 250th birthday exhibitions
Press Release · Thursday, December 4, 2025

Washington, DC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The National Archives and Records Administration announced that it will temporarily move over 30 remarkable documents, records and artifacts from storage vaults in Washington, DC and loan them to support exhibitions at America’s Presidential Libraries that celebrate the Semiquincentennial in 2026. 

This effort takes the National Archives’ ongoing exhibition series “Opening the Vault” to a national audience, and will provide Presidential Library visitors with special and exceptionally rare opportunities to get up close to important records that have shaped our nation.

The documents going on display will differ at each Presidential Library, offering visitors distinct and different experiences at each museum exhibition. Documents were selected by the National Archives’ Office of Presidential Libraries in partnership with nonprofit Presidential Foundations.

Featured documents that will cross the country for display include:

• Thomas Edison's Patent Application for the Light Bulb, 1880
• Statue of Liberty’s Deed of Gift from the People of France, 1884
• 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that ended slavery, 1865
• FDR’s handwritten “date which will live in infamy” speech draft, 1941
• Document officializing the surrender of Germany in World War II, 1945
• Letter from Jackie Robinson to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958

The following Presidential Libraries are hosting exhibitions to celebrate America250 that will include many of these historic documents in 2026. The Presidential Libraries are:

• Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri
• Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, Kansas
• John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts
• Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas
• Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California
• Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California
• George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas
• William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas
• George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas

More information about each Presidential Library’s exhibition —including opening dates and lists of documents that will be featured for display— will be announced shortly at archives.gov.