Abraham Lincoln’s signature

Abraham Lincoln’s full signature is a slim, sloping line of nineteenth-century cursive, with a tall, sweeping A and L. It sits at the bottom of some of the most important documents in American history. Watch it being drawn below.

The stroke order in this animation is our own reconstruction. Signature via Wikimedia Commons, vectorised by Signature Generator (Public domain, source).

Shape

Slim, sloping cursive with a large capital A at the start and a tall, curling L at the start of the surname.

Where it appears

Proclamations, letters, commissions and a handful of copies of the 13th Amendment.

Era

Written in the formal cursive of the mid-nineteenth century, long before ballpoint pens existed.

Legibility

Good. The letters are separate enough to read, though the end of “Lincoln” trails off.

The version signed in 1862

The Commons file used for the animation is a signature from 1862, written in full as “Abraham Lincoln”. It was the year in which he issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, on 22 September, and the final proclamation followed on 1 January 1863. Seeing the full name in this open cursive makes clear why handwriting from this period has a very recognisable look.

Signed copies for the Sanitary Fair

In 1864 forty-eight copies of the Emancipation Proclamation were printed to be signed by Lincoln and sold at the Great Central Fair in Philadelphia. The money went to the United States Sanitary Commission, which supported medical care for Union soldiers. Today 27 of them are known to survive. One copy was offered at Sotheby’s in June 2025 with an estimate of $3 to $5 million.

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The 13th Amendment

Lincoln also signed copies of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. Of the 15 recorded manuscript copies he signed, nine also bear the names of legislators, and only four of those are in private hands. The copy at the same Sotheby’s sale carried an estimate of $8 to $12 million. Those figures show how a handwritten name can become the main reason a document is valued.

What you can learn from it

Lincoln’s signature is simple and unhurried, yet it carries weight because it appears on documents that matter. A signature earns authority from consistency and from what it is attached to, not from decoration. Keep yours clear, readable and repeatable, so people trust it at a glance. If you want a version that is designed that way, a Professional Signature from us gives you one to practise and use.

Sources

Editorial content. We are not affiliated with the people shown. We do not create copies of other people’s signatures, and signing someone else’s name is forgery.