Price: $3,500.00
SKU: 102569
ARTIST: Edward Mendel
PUBLISHER: Published and lithographed by Ed. Mendel, Chicago. Entered according to Act... by Thos. B. Bryan.
MEDIUM: Two stone lithograph.
DATE: 1863.
EDITION SIZE: Image size 19 1/2 x 31" (49.2 x 78 cm)
DESCRIPTION: A period facsimile of the now lost final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.<br> "The Soldiers home - Let Loyal Hearts and Willing Hands Cherish, Comfort and Care for my Wounded Heroes."<br><br> A large facsimile of the final manuscript draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued to raise funds for the building and maintenance of a permanent home for the sick and disabled Soldiers of the Union Army.<br><br> The cost for this broadside was two dollars. With this donation, the “Purchasers of the Fac-Simile will thus invest this Immortal Instrument with a new interest, as the corner stone and foundation of an Institution.”<br><br> After composing the final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln wrote to the women organizing the 1863 Northwestern Sanitary Fair notifying them that, in response to their request, he was sending them the original manuscript, which he enclosed with his letter, so that it could be sold to raise money for the support and care of sick and disabled soldiers of the Union Army. An auction was held by the Northwestern Fair and the manuscript was purchased for $3,000 by Thomas B. Bryan, President of the Soldiers Home of Chicago. In turn, Bryan created and sold facsimiles of the draft to fund the U.S. Sanitary Commission and establish a permanent home for Union veterans. The price of the facsimile was $2. The Soldiers’ Home deposited the original manuscript at the Chicago Historical Society, where it was exhibited until the Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed the document along with much of the city. <br><br> Below the title is Bryan’s printed certification of the authenticity of the facsimile and his statement of purpose for its sale, flanked by identical emblems of the Soldiers’ Home. Below and to the left is a portrait on Lincoln followed by the facsimile of the letter Lincoln wrote on 26 Oct. 1863 to the “Ladies having in charge the North Western Fair for the Sanitary Commission, Chicago.” The letter identifies those portions of the manuscript not in his hand and explains that the printed text pasted on the manuscript “was cut from a copy of the preliminary proclamation, and pasted on merely to save writing.” Following the letter is the final manuscript draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. In the lower left is a blind-stamped official seal of authenticity with a note above reading, “Every genuine copy has the Proclamation Seal attached immediately hereunder.” A printed line at the bottom has been filled in with the name of the purchaser, J. d--- Waters. <br><br> On January 7th, 1864, Bryan sent two copies of the facsimile to Lincoln accompanied by a letter reading in part: “I mail herewith for your acceptance the two first copies of the lithographer Fac-Similes of your Proclamation of Freedom.—Have the kindness to inform me if the copies impress you favorably as an exact Fac-Simile which it purports to be…” To this, Lincoln replied: “I have received the two copies of the lithographed fac-simile of the original draft of the Emancipation Proclamation…I have to say that although I have not examined it in detail, yet it impresses me favorably as being a faithful and correct copy.”<br><br> Bryan published three versions of this broadside, all printed by Mendel. The other two versions are vertically-oriented, with one illustrated with a mounted photograph of Lincoln and the other with a portrait identical to that appearing on the version offered here. <br><br>
ADDITIONAL INFO:
CONDITION: Overall in good condition. Overall the piece is time toned and is backed on library linen. Four pin holes, one in each corner where is was likely pinned up on a wall. Tint stone is largely faded.
REFERENCE: Eberstadt 36; Last, Jay. The Color Explosion : Nineteenth-Century American Lithography (Santa Ana, CA, 2005), p. 116; “Abraham Lincoln papers collection” (at the Chicago History Museum) at Explore Chicago Collections online; “Facsimile of Emancipation Proclamation” at The Lincoln Collection online.
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