Original documents "highlighting the deep historical links between the United States and Northern Ireland" will be on display in Belfast later this year.
Documents relating to the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence will be shown in the ‘Voices Across the Atlantic: The Ulster Legacy in America’ exhibition in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).
One document involves Derry native and Secretary to the Continental Congress Charles Thomson’s address to George Washington on his election to the first Presidency of the United States.
Another is one page of President Andrew Jackson's second annual address, setting indigenous land clearance policy in the context of his forefathers’ migration. Jackson's grandparents hailed from Carrickfergus.
A third document is a letter from the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church, a Scots-Irish congregational organization, to Abraham Lincoln opposing slavery.
👀 Minister @GordonLyons1 has announced that original documents highlighting the deep historical links between the United States and Northern Ireland will be coming here later this year.
🇺🇸 Find out more:https://t.co/HZBEvY52XO pic.twitter.com/YeNVS1cc8k
— Communities NI (@CommunitiesNI) March 24, 2026
The loan of the documents was announced this week by Northern Ireland's Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, who recently visited the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, where he viewed the documents first-hand in specialist storage.
“I am delighted that my Department has secured the loan of some remarkable original documents that form an important part of America’s history," Lyons said.
"They will be carefully transported across the Atlantic to feature in an exciting new exhibition celebrating the legacy created by the many thousands who left these shores for America in the late 1700s.
“This will be the first time in history that the documents have been on loan outside of the USA.
"This has been achieved through direct engagement between my officials and the Library of Congress over several months, with my recent visit sealing the deal in person.”
Lyons added: “I encourage everyone to come along later in the year to explore these documents and much more.
“The exhibition in PRONI is one of the events that will help Northern Ireland commemorate the deep historical and ongoing connections that exist between here and the USA.”
Dr. Kevin Butterfield, Acting Chief of the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress, commented: “The Library of Congress is happy to play a role in this exhibition by loaning materials that can help people in Northern Ireland learn more about the rich and complex history of the founding of the United States. It’s a history shaped in important ways by people from Ulster, as these documents bring to life.”
PRONI’s ‘Voices Across the Atlantic: The Ulster Legacy in America’ exhibition will take place at its headquarters in Titanic Quarter, Belfast, this autumn. More details will be announced in due course.
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