Emancipation Proclamation on display at presidential museum in Springfield

Posted on June 20, 2023
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is the place to see it. (Dave Dahl/WJBC)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – What better time than Juneteenth to begin a two-week showing of a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation?

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is the place to see it. The copy was a gift to the state in 1937 and is one of about two dozen surviving copies.

Library and museum director Christina Shutt, the first Black to hold that position, said Lincoln signed almost fifty copies to raise money for wounded veterans. 

“There was the ‘now,’ when Lincoln issues his words, but there was the ‘not yet,’” Shutt said in assessing how far race relations have come. “Ultimately, the United States armed forces had to bring that freedom. They had to conquer that insurgent territory in order to bring the Emancipation Proclamation. And we see that now in 2023,” citing conflicts over voting rights as an example.

presidentlincoln.illinois.gov/emancipationproclamation

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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