Inside the Vault: The Emancipation Proclamation & FDR’s Advice to Students

The Gilder Lehrman curators were joined by Hamilton’s Tyler Belo on September 3, 2020, in this session of Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection where they celebrated the start of the school year with three amazing items. We discuss the creation of these materials, what makes each item unique, and how they add to our national story. We also showcase a fun, bonus item as well. It answers the question “What is the strangest item in the collection?”

Click here to download the slides from the presentation.

Classroom-ready resources for the documents presented

• The “authorized” edition of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln
• A California printing of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln
• Franklin D. Roosevelt’s advice to high school students (spoiler alert - study history!)

Use the timestamps below to jump to the documents you want to view

• A California printing of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln: 5:14–13:25
• The “authorized” edition of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln: 13:26–18:37
• Franklin D. Roosevelt’s advice to high school students: 31:16–41:45