Emancipation Proclamation

When President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, he said, “I never in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper. . . . If my name ever goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.”

Emancipation Proclamation to be on Permanent Display

On June 17, 2023, Archivist Colleen Shogan announced that he National Archives plans to place the Emancipation Proclamation on permanent display in the Rotunda of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. Read the press release.