Lindsay France/University Photography

Mary Curtiss, wife of late professor of law W. David Curtiss, stands among historic Abraham Lincoln materials in Kroch Library.

Just in time for the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Cornell University Library has added an original handwritten letter from Abraham Lincoln to its permanent collections.

Mary Curtiss, widow of W. David Curtiss '38, LL.B. '40, professor emeritus of law, donated the letter to the library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC) Feb. 15. Her daughter and two granddaughters accompanied her as she presented the letter to University Archivist Elaine Engst.

Dated Aug. 20, 1863, and written on executive mansion stationery, the letter reads: "Gov. Buckingham of Conn. is very anxious for Col. Birge's promotion. I present the matter to the Secretary of War and General in Chief." It is signed "A. Lincoln."

The frame with the letter also includes Mathew Brady's famous "Cooper Union" portrait of Lincoln and a calling card with Buckingham's name and, in pencil, "Gov. Buckingham Col. Henry W. Birge 13th Regt. Conn. V. for Brig General."

The two men Lincoln mentions in the letter, Gov. William Alfred Buckingham (a close friend and supporter) and Henry Warner Birge, went on to have their wishes granted; Birge was promoted to brigadier general the month after the letter was written, in September 1863.

Curtiss said her father, headmaster of the Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Del., from 1924 to 1941, was given the Lincoln letter as a retirement gift from his colleagues. At Cornell, it augments the library's extensive Lincoln collections, which include a preliminary copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Lincoln, and one of only five copies of the Gettysburg Address written in Lincoln's hand, as well as historic photographs, documents and ephemera.

Some of these materials are on display in RMC until March 30 as part of the "Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation at 150" exhibition.

Gwen Glazer is the staff writer for Cornell University Library.