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Trump to be sworn in using Lincoln Bible

President Abraham Lincoln's Bible has been used at three presidential inaugurations: Lincoln's first in 1861, and both of President Barack Obama's inaugurations in 2009 and 2013.

By Stephen Feller
President Donald Trump lays his hands on two bible held by his wife Melania Trump during his oath of office at the inauguration ceremony at the Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Trump becomes the 45th President of the United States. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI
1 of 4 | President Donald Trump lays his hands on two bible held by his wife Melania Trump during his oath of office at the inauguration ceremony at the Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Trump becomes the 45th President of the United States. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 18 (UPI) -- President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in Friday in Washington, D.C., using two Bibles, one that belonged to Abraham Lincoln and the other a gift from his mother.

Trump will recite the oath of office at his inaugural ceremony with his hand on the two Bibles..

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Trump's personal Bible was a gift from his mother when he finished Sunday Church Primary School at the First Presbyterian Church in Queens, N.Y., days before his ninth birthday.

The Lincoln Bible, stored at the Library of Congress, has been used during the swearing-in of two other presidents during three inaugurations: Lincoln recited the 35-word oath of office with it at his first inauguration, and President Barack Obama was sworn in using the Bible at both his inaugurations.

After a particularly contentious campaign for president in 2016, Trump's inauguration committee said the significance of Lincoln and the fiercely divided nation he inherited in 1861 is echoed in what some see as a country working through divisions that are also significantly deep.

"In his first inaugural address, President Lincoln appealed to the 'better angels of our nature,'" Tom Barrack, chairman of Trump's inauguration committee, said in a press release. "As he takes the same oath of office 156 years later, President-elect Trump is humbled to place his hand on Bibles that hold special meaning both to his family and to our country."

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Lincoln did not use his family's Bible because it had not yet been shipped to Washington in time for the ceremony. Instead, a U.S. Supreme Court clerk bought it specifically for the event. The Bible is an 1853 Oxford University Press edition of the King James Bible, bound in burgundy velvet with gold-washed white metal trim.

The Lincoln Bible, as it has come to be known, is said to be in good shape despite its advanced age. The Library of Congress has been responsible for it since it's donation in 1928 by Mary Lincoln, who was the widow of President Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln.

"We've used it from time to time in exhibitions, and when we talk about Lincoln, it gives us the opportunity to bring out the Bible and talk about the content of the first inaugural address," Mark Dimunation, head of rare books and special collections at the library, told The New York Times. "It does have a certain kind of electricity about it because of the nature of that inaugural event."

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