(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A rare copy of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address written in the president's own hand will be on display in Springfield this week.
There are only five existing copies of the famous speech in Lincoln's hand. The one to be be displayed at the state capital is known as the "Everett copy."
"It was written out by Lincoln after the speech in order to raise money for sick and wounded soldiers," Chris Wills of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum said Monday.
Illinois school children helped to buy the document in the 1940s by pooling their change in a statewide fundraising campaign, Wills said.
Thursday marks the 157th anniversary of the delivery of President Lincoln's remarks at the dedication of the cemetery. It was the site of a bloody Civil War battle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The document will be on display beginning Wednesday, for two weeks.
