Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library

"Reading the Emancipation Proclamation." Engraved by J.W. Watte, after a drawing by H.W. Herrick (1864).This is one of the few engravings to depict the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by those who had just been freed by it. The scene shows a Union soldier reading Lincoln's order aloud to an ecstatic gathering of slaves.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Cornell University Library is displaying its original copy, which carries with it a bit of little-known history.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the library’s copy of the historic proclamation, which was set to be entered into the official record – but the president noticed a mistake at the end of the document. A new copy was made and signed later in the day, but the copy Cornell holds had already been leaked and circulated in newspapers.

The document can be seen in the library’s “Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation at 150” exhibition, Feb. 11-18 in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC), Kroch Library, level 2B.

To protect the document, a facsimile copy will be on display for the rest of the exhibit, running through March 30.

Other items on display will include a print copy of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, several printed versions of the final document, Civil War-era photographs, contemporary issues of Harper’s Weekly and Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, broadsides and pamphlets from the slavery and anti-slavery collections and one of A.D. White’s Rebellion Miscellany scrapbooks.

The exhibition is the first of many Lincoln-related events planned over the next year that will feature the library’s extensive collections from his era.

On Feb. 12 (Lincoln’s birthday) and Feb. 18 (President’s Day), RMC staff will host guided tours of the Emancipation Proclamation exhibit 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. RMC staff will also host talks about Cornell’s Lincoln collections Feb. 18 at 10 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m., and guided tours of the “Wardrobes & Rabbit Holes: A Dark History of Children’s Literature exhibition” at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Gwen Glazer is the staff writer/editor for Cornell University Library.