Commander in Chief & Great Emancipator

Abraham Lincoln. The proclamation of emancipation, by the President of the United States, to take effect January 1st, 1863. Boston: J. M. Forbes, 1863.

• Complete Image
• HOLLIS Catalog Entry

This extremely rare miniature version (9 cm) of the Emancipation Proclamation is the first and only contemporary printing in separate book form of the historic act.  Published by Boston businessman and abolitionist John Murray Forbes (1813-1898), the booklet was intended to be distributed to freed blacks in the South by Union troops.

*AC85.L6384.863e   Purchased in 2008 on the Bayard Livingston & Kate Gray Kilgour Fund