Lincoln’s Unfinished Work

January 20 – September 30, 2015
Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY

On January 31, 1865 the United States Congress passed the 13^th Amendment, ending slavery in America. President Lincoln would not live to see the final ratification of the Amendment. He was assassinated on April 14 and a shocked nation mourned his death.

Cornell University Library marks the 150^th anniversary of these historic events with an exhibition featuring Cornell’s manuscript of the 13^th Amendment to the United States Constitution—one of only 14 copies signed by Lincoln—together with other rare documents and artifacts associated with Lincoln’s funeral.

As the House of Representatives debated over the 13^th Amendment, another piece of legislation was being introduced in the New York State Senate by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, the bill that constituted the Charter for Cornell University, which was signed into law by Governor Reuben E. Fenton on April 27, 1865.

Lincoln’s Unfinished Work serves as a prelude to our 150 Ways to Say Cornell exhibition, which continues in the Hirshland Gallery.

View the online exhibition