Abraham Lincoln wrote out five copies of the Gettysburg Address in his beautifully clear and legible handwriting. Garry Wills describes each of these manuscripts and traces the changes in their wording--and changes in the meaning of their wording--in Appendix I of our book. What he does not tell you is that the fourth copy of the speech, the Bancroft Copy, is owned by Cornell University.
The historian and statesman George Bancroft had requested a copy of the speech for use in a fund-raising publication to benefit Union soldiers, but the text that Lincoln supplied him was written on both sides of the paper and could not be used to make a lithograph for the printing process. A second request was made and that copy of the speech, now known as the Bliss Copy, resides in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House.
Bancroft kept the first copy and it remained in his family until his grandson, Cornell University professor Wilder D. Bancroft, sold it in 1929. It was sold again in 1935 to Nicholas H. and Marguerite Lilly Noyes, who presented it to Cornell in 1949.
The Cornell University Library will publicly display the Bancroft Copy of the Gettysburg Address in the Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections, Carl A. Kroch Library, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. between Monday, August 25th and Friday, August 29th.
See also our online Annotated Gettysburg Address.
[Image: Autograph Letter Signed by Abraham Lincoln to George Bancroft. Washington D.C., Februrary 29, 1864. Cornell University]
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