First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, 1863

First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln is an 1864 oil-on-canvas painting by Francis Bicknell Carpenter. In the painting, Carpenter depicts President Abraham Lincoln, and his Cabinet members reading over the Emancipation Proclamation, which proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states rebelling against the Union in the American Civil War. Shown from left to right are Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War (seated); Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury (standing); Lincoln; Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy (seated); Caleb Blood Smith, Secretary of the Interior (standing); William H. Seward, Secretary of State (seated); Montgomery Blair, United States Postmaster General (standing); and Edward Bates, United States Attorney General (seated). Portraits of Simon Cameron and Andrew Jackson adorn the wall behind them. Lincoln presented the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet on July 22, 1862, and issued the Proclamation on September 22, 1862, which took effect on January 1, 1863. Carpenter spent six months in the White House while he painted. The painting is displayed at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C

Picture No

12696612

Media ID

47672315

Size

4800px x 2928px (1.7MB)

Credit

NYPL/Science Source/Mary Evans