The Construction of
the Proclamation
Lincoln's final draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation,
January 1, 1863
Page 2 - Page
3 - Page 4
Photographic copy
Manuscript Division
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The original autograph copy of the final Emancipation
Proclamation was sold in 1863 at the Chicago Northwestern Sanitary
Fair. The buyer, Thomas B. Bryan, generously presented the document
to the Soldier's Home in Chicago, which benefitted from the sale
of lithograph copies until the original was destroyed in the devastating
Chicago fire of 1871.
Photographic copies like the one shown here
preserved the Proclamation's unique construction. The superscription,
"By the President . . . ." and ending, "In witness whereof, .
. ." are in the hand of a clerk, and the printed insertions are
from the preliminary proclamation of September 1862. The rest
is in the hand of President Lincoln.
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