Emancipation Proclamation To Be Displayed In Binghamton

The only surviving copy of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in Abraham Lincoln's handwriting is scheduled to go on display soon in Binghamton.

The historic document is part of a traveling exhibition organized by the New York State Museum.

It's scheduled to be on display at the Roberson Museum and Science Center at 30 Front Street in Binghamton on November 1st.

Roberson executive director Terry McDonald said Binghamton is one of eight scheduled stops for the exhibition, entitled The First Step to Freedom: Abraham Lincoln's Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Speaking on WNBF Radio's Binghamton Now program, McDonald said the exhibit will be accompanied by armed guards.

McDonald described the surviving copy in written by Lincoln as a "fantastically important document."

The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln in September 1862 -- 150 years ago -- in the midst of the Civil War.

Lincoln's final handwritten Emancipation Proclamation was destroyed in a fire in Chicago in 1871.

The Preliminary Proclamation document survived a fire at the New York State Capitol in Albany in 1911. It has since been preserved by the State Library.

School students from Southern Tier districts will have an opportunity to view the exhibition at Roberson on the morning of November 1st.

The exhibit is to be open to the public later that day from noon to 8 p.m.