Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Obama to take oath on Lincoln Bible

|
|
 
  
Library of Congress curator Clark W. Evans displays the Lincoln Bible during a photo-op at the Library of Congress in Washington on December 23, 2008. The Presidential Inaugural Committee announced today that President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in using the same Bible that President Lincoln used. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) 
License photo
Published: Dec. 23, 2008 at 11:02 AM

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Barack Obama will be sworn in as U.S. president using a Bible President Abraham Lincoln used, officials close to the inauguration committee said.

While the Presidential Inaugural Committee declined comment, two sources familiar with the process told The Washington Post that Obama will use one of two Lincoln Bibles in the Library of Congress when he takes the oath of office to become the country's 44th president.

Obama has drawn on the 16th president several times -- from announcing his candidacy on the steps of the old statehouse in Springfield, Ill., where Lincoln also began his bid, to drawing upon Lincoln's views when filling Cabinet posts.

Obama has two Bibles at his disposal. The Lincoln family took one from Illinois when they moved to Washington in 1861 but it was packed away and wasn't found in time to be used in Lincoln's first inaugural ceremony, so a substitute Bible was used.

At least two other Lincoln Bibles are kept outside Washington. A family Bible is at his birthplace in Kentucky while a Bible presented to Lincoln by African-Americans after the president signed the Emancipation Proclamation is in the archives at Fisk University in Nashville.

Topics: Abraham Lincoln
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...