Following the Battle of Antietam, 158 years ago today Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation declaring that in 100 days, all slaves in Southern states in rebellion would be free.
When Jan. 1, 1863, arrived, Lincoln followed through. On days like this we like to note the occasion by delving back into the nation’s archives to discover how the graphic designers and commercial artists of the era documented and depicted the news then and after.
Here is but a sampling from the Library of Congress—starting with Lincoln’s original handwritten decree, and ending with Georg Olden’s Emancipation Proclamation centennial stamp and Gail Anderson’s 150th anniversary stamp.
