Gettysburg Address

Marketing promoters think that anything old must show age. In the case of Lincoln documents, souvenir copies are typically on brown crinkled paper that attempts to imitate parchment, a medium Lincoln rarely used. Most people who claim to have an original copy of the Gettysburg Address have one of these. Because they are not marked as facsimiles, these fool people into thinking they have a genuine Lincoln original. Usually missing nowadays is the sales envelope indicating that the document is a facsimile. Early envelopes stated in bold red ink, "Enclosed Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in his own handwriting on genuine aged parchment paper. It Looks Old and Feels Old! This is an authentic reproduction of the original in the Library of Congress, Washington D.C." In fact, the original is in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House. The original is written on three sheets, whereas facsimiles are reduced to two sheets or to two columns on one large sheet.