The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem will be the first stop for the New York State Museum's traveling exhibition of the only surviving draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in Abraham Lincoln's handwriting.
On display Sept. 21 through Sept. 24, “The First Step to Freedom: Abraham Lincoln's Preliminary Proclamation,†will include both the draft for the preliminary document, issued on Sept. 22, 1862, and the official Jan. 1, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation (on loan from the National Archives). The proclamation changed the course of history by freeing tens of thousands of slaves and laying the foundation for the end of slavery.
The exhibition brings together for the first time the draft of the preliminary document and the final proclamation. It is also the first time that the two emancipation documents will be displayed along with the manuscript of a Sept. 12, 1962 speech by the Re v. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the New York State Civil War Centennial Commission in New York City. Dr. King's speech - typewritten with handwritten notes throughout - argued that the descendants of slaves were still awaiting civil rights and that government could be a powerful force for change.
“It's such a handsome, powerful and organic document,†Mark Schaming, director of the New York State Museum said Wednesday of the draft copy. “It's on this beautiful old paper and he's thinking while he's writing.†The draft shows, for example, that Lincoln toyed with the idea of compensating slaveholders. Lincoln's fingerprint can even been seen in the ink, Mr. Schaming said. The exhibition's three documents are accompanied by free-standing pylons that provide context for what the documents mean historically and now.
Free tickets to the Schomburg exhibition will be available beginning Wednesday on a first-come, first-served basis. Each ticketholder must reserve a time to view the exhibition at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, at 135th Street. Tickets can be acquired by visiting www.schomburgcenter.eventbrite.com or by calling: (212) 491-2207.
The New York State Legislature bought the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in 1865 from Gerrit Smith, a well-known abolitionist. The state will show off its jewel as the exhibition tours New York State this month, with stops that include the Oncenter in Syracuse, the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, the Plattsburgh State Art Center, the Rochester Museum and Science Center and the New York State Museum in Albany.
Lincoln issued the preliminary document to signal his intention to order the freeing of slaves in any Confederate state that did not return to Union control by Jan. 1, 1863 - the day the official Emancipation Proclamation was signed and issued. A rare copy of the Emancipation Proclamation sold for $2.085 million at auction in New City in June.
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