Many thanks to Joe Di Cola for sending these images and information!


Ralph Wilson / AP
A certificate signed by Abraham Lincoln is displayed in the Lycoming College archives in Williamsport, Pa. The document naming the school's founder as a Civil War chaplain had been missing for years.

By Elisha Fieldstadt, NBC News
A long-missing certificate with Abraham Lincoln's signature was found last week at a college in Pennsylvania by the president who knew it was there but had never looked for it.

James Douthat, the retiring president of Lycoming College was simply cleaning out his closet when he found the 150-year-old document.

Douthat was pulling out what he thought was an access panel to plumbing when he discovered a framed certificate, dated 1863, which named the college’s founder a Civil War chaplain, according to the Associated Press.

He was vaguely familiar with the history.

"In the back of my mind, I remember hearing about it," Douthat told the AP.

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Ralph Wilson / AP
Lycoming College historian, John Piper, left, and Janet Hurlbert, dean and director of the school's Library, look over a certificate signed by Abraham Lincoln in the college archives in Williamsport, Pa.

The document is in good condition, according to the AP, and Douthat said he “recognized Lincoln's signature immediately."

A similar certificate also signed by Lincoln recently sold for $11,000, according to autograph dealer the Raab Collection, but a preliminary appraisal on the particular certificate found at Lycoming revealed that it is worth about half that amount, the AP found.

For the college, the real value the certificate holds is its connection with the founder of the college, Benjamin Crever.

John Brinsfield, a U.S. Army Chaplain Corps historian emeritus, explained to the AP that Crever served at a military hospital between 1862 and 1865, when the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg occurred.

College officials told the AP that they will store the document in the college archives until they decide where it should be permanently placed — but the Associate dean and library director Janet McNeil Hurlbert assured, "We will know exactly where it will be."

And imagine-it was in a closet for all these years. Amazing!

It is amazing. You never know when things will crop up. I recall when they were renovating the Lincoln Home in Springfield they found Lincoln-related documents in the walls.

Why would they have been in the walls?

(06-10-2013 08:40 PM)LincolnMan Wrote:  And imagine-it was in a closet for all these years. Amazing!

Not really, You have probably never seen my wife's closet.

(06-11-2013 05:56 AM)LincolnMan Wrote:  Why would they have been in the walls?

Bill, I am not sure, but there is a brief article about it here.

Not to cause you any grief Roger- but the article could not be clearly read. Don't worry about it - maybe it's my eyes.

Good morning, Bill. Sorry about that; I just made a print of the article from 1987:

Thanks Roger for going the extra mile so that the article is more easily read. It sure is a curiosity as to how the documents got there. Perhaps there was some kitchen renovation at some point- and the papers were inadvertently sealed in the wall?

Or they did it as a way to dispose of paper refuse while also upping the insulation of the home?

My guess is that Joe is correct. That was a very typical way of insulating homes in earlier days. Newspapers also lined trunks and dresser drawers, and we all know that newspapers make wonderful window cleaners. In my family's attic, I have found old papers being used to fill space between photos and prints and the backing to the frames. Of course, I never find one that's valuable!

It wouldn't just be interesting why, but also WHO did this and if A.L. or Mary knew about it. (It reminds me to the story that a copy of the first Beatles movie, "A hard day's night" was buried in California to keep it preserved for ensuing ages. Maybe someone had the same intention with the speech.)

(06-12-2013 06:52 AM)J. Beckert Wrote:  Or they did it as a way to dispose of paper refuse while also upping the insulation of the home?

LOL: it reminded me of the fellow that used Confederate paper currently as wallpaper after the wall-what else could he do with it?