An original edition of the Gettysburg Address will be on display for 12 days at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is the only place in America where the public can regularly see Lincoln’s most famous speech written in his own hand.
The presidential library’s copy of the Gettysburg Address will be exhibited Nov. 17 through Nov. 28. After that, it returns to a climate-controlled vault for safekeeping.
To give more people the opportunity to appreciate this powerful document, admission to the museum will be free on Nov. 19, the 160th anniversary of Lincoln delivering the speech at a military cemetery in Gettysburg, Pa. And for the full 12 days the address is on display, visitors also have the option of paying just $5 to see the document without touring the rest of the museum.
The Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous speeches ever given. Its stirring prose and historic impact have been studied by everyone from schoolchildren to scholars.
Five handwritten copies of the Gettysburg Address still exist. In addition to the ALPLM’s copy, one is in the White House, one is at Cornell University and two are at the Library of Congress. Those institutions rarely exhibit their copies to the general public. The ALPLM, however, displays its copy each year around the anniversary of Lincoln delivering the speech.
For anyone who can’t visit in person, the ALPLM offers a webpage (www.PresidentLincoln.Illinois.gov/gettysburgaddress) that provides an up-close look at the presidential library’s copy of the speech, explaining its history and how it differs from other copies. It also examines the meaning and impact of Lincoln’s words. Just click on key words in the speech and up pop boxes full of helpful information.
The page also includes educational resources for teachers and parents, a photo gallery and links to other sources of information about the address.
The State of Illinois has owned this edition of the address, known as the Everett Copy, since 1944, when the state’s children helped raise money to buy it from private owners.
Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19, 1863, at the dedication of a national cemetery for the thousands of Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. It opens with the famous phrase “Four score and seven years ago” and finishes by describing the Civil War as a battle to preserve government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”