On tour: Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

The only surviving version of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in Abraham Lincoln's handwriting will be making an 8-city tour of New York this fall. WAMC’s Dave Lucas reports.

The New York State Museum plans to unveil the traveling exhibit to mark the sesquicentennial of the document on Friday at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City.

Lincoln released the preliminary document on Sept. 22, 1862. The official Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves was issued Jan. 1, 1863.

The traveling exhibit will also make one- or two-day stops in Syracuse, Buffalo, Long Island, Plattsburgh, Rochester and Binghamton before ending up back in Albany at the New York State Museum in November.

The Preliminary Proclamation survived the State Capitol fire of 1911 and has been preserved by the New York State Library.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.