WJBC

The latest big acquisition of Lincoln artifacts in Springfield comes from Down Under.

The 16th president did not visit Australia, but that’s where a major collector lives. Daniel Stowell, director of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, was on a speaking tour of Australia — funded by the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney — when somebody told him of the possibility of a find.

“I began a correspondence with (the collector) and was delighted to learn that, yes indeed, he had this envelope which was addressed by Abraham Lincoln,” said Stowell.

The envelope goes with a letter the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum already owns. It’s a response to the governor of Kentucky, who complained of Union Army recruiting in a state that was to be neutral.

The collector, Barry Jones, sent Stowell a digital copy and still has the original.

This article was originally published by WJBC