Considerable scholarly debate continues about whether the Nicolay copy is the "reading" copy. Having returned from Gettysburg, Lincoln produced a number of copies of his speech for friends and for charitable purposes. In 1894 Nicolay wrote that Lincoln had brought the first part of the speech to Gettysburg, written in ink on Executive Mansion stationery, and that he had written the second page in pencil on lined paper before the dedication on November 19, 1863. Matching folds are still evident on the two pages shown here, suggesting it could be the copy that eyewitnesses say Lincoln took from his coat pocket and read at the ceremony.
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Abraham Lincoln, Draft of the Gettysburg Address: Nicolay Copy, November 1863; Series 3, General Correspondence, 1837-1897; The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division (Washington, D. C.: American Memory Project, [2000-02]).