Abraham Lincoln portrait and Gettysburg Address text, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, circa 1909

Subjects: Civil War Patriotic Public Figures
Card type: Lithograph

Back of Abraham Lincoln portrait and Gettysburg Address text, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, circa 1909, Lewis and Reilly, PA, USA, lithograph postcard — Back

About this postcard

The card pairs a halftone profile portrait of Abraham Lincoln, captioned "HONEST ABE" LINCOLN / From a rare photograph, with the full text of his Gettysburg Address under the heading "LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG." The address was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg. Cards reproducing the speech and a Lincoln likeness were popular souvenirs around the Lincoln centennial of 1909 and the Civil War's fiftieth-anniversary commemorations.

Postcard Details

Message · English, in pen

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that na- tion or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the fitting place of those who have given their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we can not dedi- cate we can not consecrate we can not hallow this ground. The brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will very little note nor long remember what we say here, but it

PublisherLewis and Reilly

LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG. Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the pro- position that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation—or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated—can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it, as the final resting place of those who have given their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow— this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our power to add or to detract. The world will very little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining be- fore us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion— that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain —that the nation, shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. "HONEST ABE" LINCOLN From a rare photograph. --- Post Card COMPLIMENTS OF LEWIS AND REILLY "ALWAYS BUSY" FOOTWEAR SCRANTON, PA.

PostmarkedScranton, PA

Addressed to

No address detected

Postcard record

Postmarked	Scranton, PA
Condition	Fair
Stamp	1c Benjamin Franklin, Scott #300, green, issued 1903
Notes	White border; undivided-back era stock. Heavy handling: creases across the center and lower right, worn and chipped corners, light soiling. Faint pencil/pen handwriting at the top edge repeating the phrase "can never forget what they did here" from the speech; halftone dot pattern in the portrait. Postmark: SCRANTON FEB 1909 3:30 PM. Divided-back advertising card (1907+); handwritten Gettysburg Address in pencil across the back; printed ad for Lewis and Reilly Footwear, Scranton PA. Light edge/corner wear.

Cite this card

Abraham Lincoln portrait and Gettysburg Address text, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, circa 1909, postcard, n.d.. PostalPast Collection. https://postalpast.com/postcard/abraham-lincoln-portrait-and-gettysburg-address-text-gettysb. Accessed October 22, 2026.