Lincoln portrait and Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, PA, 1909

Subjects: Civil War Patriotic Public Figures
Card type: Lithograph
Date: c. 1909 (Golden Age)

Back of Lincoln portrait and Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, PA, 1909, Canton, OH, USA, c. 1909 lithograph postcard — Back

About this postcard

The card pairs a profile portrait of Abraham Lincoln, captioned "HONEST ABE" LINCOLN, with the full text of the Gettysburg Address under the printed title "LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG." The portrait is also identified as "From a rare photograph." Lincoln delivered the address 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. The speech's brief, plain language and its call for a "new birth of freedom" made it a common patriotic text. Cards pairing the speech with a Lincoln likeness were popular souvenirs around the Lincoln centennial of 1909.

Postcard Details

Message · English, in pen

Fourscore 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 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 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 can never forget what they did he[re] [illegible] C. Elliott

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.

PostmarkedCanton, OH

Addressed to

No address detected

Postcard record

Postmarked	Canton, OH
Publisher	Lewis and Reilly
Condition	Fair
Stamp	1c Benjamin Franklin, Scott #300, green, issued 1903
Stamp	1c Benjamin Franklin, green, perforated on all sides
Notes	White border; divided back with center divider. Heavy handling: creases across the center and lower right, worn and chipped corners, light soiling. Halftone dot pattern in the portrait. The sender hand-copied the Gettysburg Address in pencil across the entire back and continued it onto the top edge of the front ("can never forget what they did here"). Back carries a printed ad for Lewis and Reilly, "Always Busy" Footwear, Scranton, PA. Postmark: CANTON, O., FEB 1909, 3:30 PM; one-cent Franklin stamp; "SLP 4" penciled near the stamp.

Cite this card

Lincoln portrait and Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, PA, 1909, postcard, c. 1909. PostalPast Collection. https://postalpast.com/postcard/lincoln-portrait-and-gettysburg-address-gettysburg-pa-1909. Accessed November 2, 2026.