Press

ALBANY, N.Y. - Visitors will have a special opportunity to view the rare Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation written almost exclusively in President Abraham Lincoln's hand from Wednesday, Feb. 2, to Sunday, Feb. 6. It will be displayed in the South Hall of the New York State Museum to honor African American History Month.

The Museum's daily operating hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. will be extended until 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 2 and Thursday, Feb. 3 for this event co-sponsored by the Museum, the New York State Library, the Governor's Office and the New York State Police.

"We are pleased to present the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation to the public," Museum Director Cliff Siegfried said. "This is also a preview of things to come. The Museum's Master Plan includes an exciting exhibit that features this document. In a few years, the public will be able to view the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on a permanent basis."

Lincoln read this four-page document, owned by the New York State Library for the last 135 years, to his Cabinet on Sept. 22, 1862, nearly two years into the Civil War.

It declared that all persons living as slaves in states still in rebellion against the United States on Jan. 1, 1863, "shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."

On New Year's Day 1863, Lincoln signed the Final Emancipation Proclamation. Although it did not immediately free a single slave, the action set a moral tone for the Civil War. The manuscript of the Final Emancipation Proclamation was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Coincidentally, if a quick-acting state employee didn't save the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation from the fire at the New York State Capitol on March 29, 1911, it too would have been lost.

New York State came to own the document on April 28, 1865, three days after Lincoln's funeral train passed through Albany. At that time, the New York State Legislature purchased the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation for $1,000, and gave it to the State Library.

To exhibit this document to the public, it is enclosed in a stainless steel and glass container filled with inert gases to prevent oxygen from damaging it. State troopers will give the document round-the-clock protection.

"One of the greatest documents in American history, the Emancipation Proclamation represents what was probably Lincoln's greatest moment as President and the thing for which he is most remembered," said James Corsaro, Associate Librarian, Manuscripts and Special Collections at the New York State Library.

"Written in Lincoln's own hand, the preliminary draft of the document is preserved in the collections of the New York State Library as an important part of our historic heritage," Corsaro said.

More information on the document, including its text, can be found at the State Library's website: www.nysl.nysed.gov

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