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

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.