There are just 27 known copies remaining of the only authorized and printed edition of the Emancipation Proclamation’s full text signed by President Abraham Lincoln and one of them is going on auction, writes Stephanie Farr for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The rare copies, known as the Leland-Broker broadside, will be sold by British auction house Christie’s New York offices as part of its “We the People: America at 250” auction in January 2026.
In addition to President Lincoln, the broadsides were also signed in Philadelphia by his secretary of state William Seward, and his private secretary John Nicolay, respectively.
It’s expected that they can fetch anywhere between $3 million and $5 million when auctioned on January 23.
Peter Klarnet, senior specialist for Americana books and manuscripts at Christie’s, expressed the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
“The Emancipation Proclamation is really a reaffirmation of American freedom in so many ways,” he said. “It’s now extending that freedom to people who didn’t have it before and extending the promise of what was in the Constitution.”
The majority of the 27 copies are located in institutional collections. Three are in Philadelphia in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, and at the Union League, respectively.
Read more rare signed Emancipation Proclamation copies going on auction in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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