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Inkwell used by Lincoln to write the first draft of
the Emancipation Proclamation
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Always eager for news from the front, Abraham Lincoln
liked to visit daily the telegraph office inside of the
War Department building next to the White House. Lincoln
found the office to be a relatively quiet place in which
to work, uninterrupted by visitors, while waiting to read
the latest dispatches from his generals in the field.
In June 1862, as the Union army was losing momentum in
the Peninsular Campaign, Lincoln began writing the first
draft of his Emancipation Proclamation. He would sit at
the desk of Major Thomas T. Eckert, the superintendent
of military telegraphs for the Army of the Potomac, and
use this brass inkwell to compose his thoughts. He wrote
slowly, sometimes penning only a sentence or two a day
during the span of several weeks. |
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Division of Social History, Political History
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Behring Center
Transfer from the Library of Congress
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