LINCOLN FARM ASSOCIATION

[TWAIN, MARK] [Clemens, S. L.] Lincoln Farm Association. LINCOLN FARM ASSOCIATION CERTIFICATE. [n.p., n.d., printed in 1906; issued 1906-1909] Certificate, 9 1/2 x 12 inches, broadside. A handsome example. An appeal for funds to save Lincoln's birthplace had been sent out in 1906, signed in type by Twain and others. This certificate was sent to those who made donations in response to that initial appeal for funds. This handsome certificate has an engraving of Lincoln at top center (the now familiar portrait that later appeared on the five dollar bill) and contains the facsimile autographs of the original committee members: Mark Twain, President Taft, and more than a dozen others, along with an bright orange seal affixed dated 1906 that uses the same profile of Lincoln that was later used on the Lincoln penny in 1909. In August 1905, Robert Collier (Collier's Weekly) purchased the Lincoln Farm. In April, 1906, Collier, Twain, William Jennings Bryan, Samuel Gompers, William Howard Taft, and others organized the Lincoln Farm Association. That same year they bought the Lincoln birthplace cabin from a New York businessman who had bought it in 1894 and taken it on tours of various cities. Their efforts raised more than $350,000 to build a memorial in which to house the cabin. Teddy Roosevelt laid the cornerstone in 1909, and Taft dedicated the building in 1911. The site was made a national park in 1916, and the shrine is visited by thousands every year. We have handled several copies of this rare ephemera. cf. BAL 3495 (recording the broadside appeal for funds, but not this certificate).