Autograph Abraham Lincoln documents from the Lincoln Collection at the University of Delaware

The following list of material includes all of the documents in the University of Delaware’s Lincoln Collection that contain Abraham Lincoln’s original signature or other autograph writing. These documents, housed in the Special Collections Department of Morris Library, are part of a much larger collection of Lincolniana that came to the University from the Lincoln Club of Delaware in 1972. The collection includes over two thousand books and pamphlets, photographs, artwork, sculpture, artifacts, historic documents, and miscellaneous material pertaining to the life and career of Abraham Lincoln. There are thirteen documents in this collection signed by Lincoln or written in his hand, as well as several related letters and photographs. Included are a signed broadside edition of the Emancipation Proclamation (Item #8), a signed copy of the resolution proposing the Thirteenth Amendment (Item #11), and a small collection of documents related to Lincoln’s contact with Civil War veteran and Delaware native Ashland B. Swiggett (Item #4).

The items are listed below in chronological order, according to the date of the Lincoln document. The material, most of which is framed, is contained in six boxes; the box number for each item is listed at the end of the item’s description. Where practical, a full transcription accompanies the item description.