Rare Lincoln Document on display at Roberson

11/1/2012 (Updated 9:52:10 PM)

(Source: Travis Eldridge)

BINGHAMTON -- Most preliminary drafts aren't guarded by glass and armed guards, but this is no ordinary rough draft like many of these kids write in class each week.

"It's contained always in the museum in Albany, but it's not brought out on display very often," said Terry McDonald, Executive Director of the Roberson Museum. "Really it's likely a once in a lifetime opportunity."

It's Abraham Lincoln's preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, the only surviving copy of the document in Lincoln's handwriting.  Thursday, it was at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton.

"That's just the coolest part," said Joey Hester, a sixth grader from Montrose Elementary. "Seeing a document from so long ago, here, like you wouldn't think it would go here of all places."

Even 150 years after Lincoln proclaimed the Emancipation Proclamation, the message is still the same to all ages.

"To understand what was going on back then, that it was slavery and that it affected a lot of people," said Ryan Soden, a teacher at Montrose Elementary. "Just to understand the magnitude it had."

However, for some the most impressive part of all was something else about Lincoln.

"It looks fake, because his writing is really neat," said Matthew Mihalko.

The document will be on display Friday as well before it moves onto Utica, the second to last stop on the document's tour around New York State.