How Scientists Preserve Lincoln's Original Gettysburg Address Manuscripts

image credit Cornell University Library

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln uttered the 10 sentences that would come to be known as the Gettysburg Address. Though Lincoln suggests that 'the world will take little note, nor long remember what we say here,' 150 years later the speech is not only remembered, but considered one of the greatest in American history.

Lincoln penned five known copies of his Gettysburg speech. Researchers still study the variations in these documents' histories, content, and physical properties. But what's the best way to preserve these frail papers?