Original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation will go on display at ALPLM

One of about two dozen surviving original copies of the Emancipation Proclamation will go on display at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum for Juneteenth Independence Day.

The proclamation, which bears the signature of President Abraham Lincoln, will be displayed Monday through June 23 and June 26 through June 30 in the ALPLM’s library building, 112 N. Sixth Street.

The library is a separate building from the museum. It is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

More: Celebrating Juneteenth in Springfield: here are some events to attend

The ALPLM also announced that it is launching a new online tool letting viewers around the world explore the proclamation, its meaning and its impact on history.

Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, after it was preliminarily issued on September 22, 1862. The proclamation applied only to the Southern states in rebellion.

The proclamation, which Lincoln justified as a “fit and necessary war measure,” could not be enforced until federal troops captured Southern territory. That meant many people remained enslaved until the end of the Civil War in 1865.

Among them were the enslaved people of Galveston, Texas, who achieved freedom with the arrival of federal troops on June 19, 1865. The anniversary of that “Juneteenth” - the word is a combination of "June" and "nineteenth" - became an annual celebration that gradually spread across the country and came to symbolize the end of slavery, although that was not totally abolished until the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified six months later.

“Few documents in all of American history carry the weight of the Emancipation Proclamation," said Christina Shutt, executive director of the ALPLM. "We are proud to share it with the public and celebrate its connection to such a joyous holiday.”

The ALPLM’s copy was one of 48 printed copies that President Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward signed that were sold at the June 1864 Great Central Sanitary Fair in Philadelphia to raise money for the care of soldiers. Only 27 of the copies are known to exist.

The ALPLM has original copies of the Gettysburg Address and the Thirteenth Amendment.

Visitors to the ALPLM website can get more information about the Emancipation Proclamation by clicking on key words in the document. The site will include educational resources for teachers and parents, a photo gallery and links to other sources of information about the address.

The site goes lives June 19.

A display on the museum side will show the history of Black Americans and their fight for full citizenship. It includes a timeline running from 1787 to present and touches on slavery in the supposedly free state of Illinois, the 1908 Race Riot in Springfield and Juneteenth celebrations in Lincoln’s hometown. It was developed by Juneteenth Inc. and the Illinois State Museum.

ALPLM staff will have an activity table with hands-on crafts for children and a reproduction of the Emancipation Proclamation during the “Juneteenth Block Party” at the Illinois State Museum from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday.

Staff also will be at Comer Cox Park from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday when attendees can design and make their own buttons.

Contact Steven Spearie: (217) 622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: The presidential museum will display an original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation