As Black History Month begins and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday approaches, the New-York Historical Society is pleased to add to its displays a rare handwritten copy of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution—the measure that abolished slavery—signed by Lincoln himself.
The document, which was recently acquired by David Rubenstein, managing director of The Carlyle Group, will be on view at New-York Historical in the new Robert H. and Clarice Smith New York Gallery of American History.
It has not been displayed in New York for more than 40 years.
Rubenstein will participate in the unveiling ceremony at noon with a group of eighth-grade American history students from IS 259 in Brooklyn and KIPP Academy in Manhattan. The ceremony will be held at 12:00 noon at New-York Historical on February 1, the 147th anniversary of the signing of the Thirteenth Amendment. It will then be on public display through April 1.
Other documents currently on view at New-York Historical include the Stamp Act of 1765 (which set off riots that ultimately led to the American Revolution), on loan from the Parliamentary Archives, London, and the only known surviving copy of the first printing of the Haitian Declaration of Independence (1804, National Archives, London). These two documents, exhibited to the U.S. public for the first time, are part of the current exhibition Revolution! The Atlantic World Reborn.
Also currently on view at New-York Historical is Freedom Now: Photographs by Platon, an exhibition of large-scale, present-day images of figures who were engaged in the Civil Rights struggle of the 1950s and ‘60s.
The New-York Historical Society Museum & Library is located at 170 Central Park West, in Manhattan. www.nyhistory.org. Tel: 212-873-3400