National Museum of American History
Gettysburg Address
November 21, 2008 – January 11, 2009
To celebrate Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday, the museum showcases the rarely exhibited White House's copy of the Gettysburg Address. This manuscript is one of five drafts and is the last known to have been written in Lincoln's hand. It was penned in March 1864 for the anthology Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors to raise funds for the Union and was kept by Alexander Bliss, one of the book's publishers. Auctioned in 1949, it was purchased by Oscar Cintas, a former Cuban ambassador, who upon his death in 1957 asked that it be placed in the White House collection. With the generous support of Mrs. Laura Bush, the White House is loaning this copy to the museum during this time period.
No photography permitted
