Abe Lincoln museum to display Gettysburg Address

SPRINGFIELD — A handwritten manuscript of the Gettysburg Address will be displayed this summer at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.

The document can be viewed in the museum's Treasures Gallery from Friday through Sept. 4. It was last displayed for five days in February.

Illinois' copy is one of five original handwritten versions of the Gettysburg Address and contains the words “under God,” which Lincoln had not included in his two original draft copies.

Lincoln delivered the famous speech in November 1863 while dedicating the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Penn.

The state acquired the document in 1944 after Illinois schoolchildren collected pennies and department store magnate Marshall Field III donated money.

The museum also will display a never-before-seen 1880 letter written by Thomas Edison praising Lincoln's greatness.