Abraham Lincoln Signature Sighting

A couple weeks ago, I learned that the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was in town.  Being a HUGE Abraham Lincoln fan (in a nutshell: I think he was the most forward-thinking President in American history, and was incredibly brave in following what he believed was right rather than what was popular), I had to see it.  It was part of an exhibit called ""The First Step to Freedom: Abraham Lincoln's Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation," which also happened to display Martin Luther King Jr's Centennial Address.  What more could a historian want? 

(The documents were housed in glass cases, and there were lights directly above them, so please excuse the poor photography).

As we waited in line, we read facts about the documents we were about to see.  The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was issued in September 1862, after the Union's victory in the battle of Antietam, and it ordered that in 100 days, the federal government would deem all slaves free in the Confederate states.  The entire document was written by Abraham Lincoln.  In fact, there is even a fingerprint on one page of the document, which is said to be Lincoln's.

page 1, in Lincoln's handwriting!

Here's a photo of the page bearing the fingerprint that is believed to be Lincoln's (I obviously added the red circle):

As for the type-written language you see above Lincoln's fingerprint, it is thought that Lincoln probably glued this language (which is from the Congressional Confiscation Act) onto his Proclamation in order to save time. 

As for the signature that I was especially excited to see, here it is:

I am going to write a separate blog post covering MLK's Centennial speech.