Story · sound recordings, subtitles · captured 1 November 2026 (UTC)
A recitation of the Gettysburg Address on a Berliner gramophone disc of 1898, the transcript the Archive's speech recognition made of it, and Lincoln's text as printed in 1864, compared word by word.
Is there an old recording of the Gettysburg Address? Let me hear it, and check its transcript against Lincoln's words as they were printed at the time.
The assistant counted how many old recordings carry subtitle files, found the record by title, read its metadata and its subtitle files, then found Lincoln's text in an 1864 printing and read that page. Each section below names the tools that made it; all 10 calls, in order, with what each returned, are in the receipts at the end.
Lincoln's Speech At Gettysburg, a recitation by Mr. W. F. Hooley, digitised from a disc in fair condition. The recording on the other side of this disc: Not completed due to physical condition of disc. Technical Notes: Acoustic
The player streams the MP3 from archive.org only when you press play. Item: archive.org/details/78_lincolns-speech-at-gettysburg_mr-w-f-hooley_gbia0362658a
The label in the photograph above appears to read “SEP 21 1898”; the item's date field says 1898-10-21. We read the label from the image; the tool returned only the date field.
The item has 2 subtitle files (WebVTT, SubRip), both marked machine-made: made by speech recognition, not typed by a person. Read as timed text, the cues run from 00:00:01 to 00:01:47. Words that differ from the 1864 printing are underlined, on both sides: 36 differences in all. Point at one, or tab to it, to see its counterpart on the other side. Press a cue's time to hear it from there; the record streams from archive.org.
[...] at Pittsburgh by Mr. William S. Dooley. Oh, sure, and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all
men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, a single part of that nation, or any nation so complete and dedicated and long-ensured, can live through such a struggle. We are met on a trace that of the use of that war.
We are met to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place of all who gave their lives that that nation might live. We destroyed together fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot concentrate,
we cannot follow this ground. The brave men living and dead who have struggled here have consecrated power above all power to act or to interact. The world will very little note or long remember what we say here, but it can
never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, better to be dedicating the unfairness worth that they don't normally carry on. It is for us better to be real dedicated to the great fact remaining before us
that from these honest days we take increased devotion. That we hear highly resolved that these days shall not have died in vain, that the nation shall under God have a new birth of freedom. And the government of the people, by the people, or the people, shall not
perish from the earth.
FOURSCORE and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion,— that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain, that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Orange: words that match the 1864 printing in order; grey: words that differ. Point at a bar for its numbers.
| Cue | Words as printed | Different |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:01 | 23 | 10 |
| 00:00:20 | 30 | 17 |
| 00:00:37 | 41 | 6 |
| 00:00:55 | 33 | 9 |
| 00:01:11 | 31 | 10 |
| 00:01:26 | 42 | 7 |
| 00:01:47 | 4 | 0 |
The first cue looks like the record's spoken announcement, heard as “at Pittsburgh by Mr. William S. Dooley”, where the label and title say Gettysburg and Mr. W. F. Hooley; and “Oh, sure, and seven years ago” looks like a mishearing of “Fourscore and seven years ago”. A difference can be the machine's or the reciter's own wording: only listening tells which, and we haven't judged that here.
made with search_inside · get_item · get_full_text · get_page_image
Published by Boston : Little, Brown in 1864: the address Edward Everett gave at the consecration of the cemetery at Gettysburg, “with the dedicatory speech of President Lincoln”, as the title says. Searching inside it for “Fourscore” found 1 match, on scan page 94; that page's OCR text is the printed side of the comparison above.
Lincoln's address survives in several versions that differ in small ways. Which one the reciter followed in 1898 we can't tell from these results, so some underlined words may be his text rather than the machine's error.
All 10 calls of the run, in the order they were made, with what each returned. Open one to see when it was taken and which sections it made; press Play to watch them arrive.
The recording was published in 1898 and the book in 1864; Lincoln's text is from 1863. All are in the public domain in the United States, so the transcript and the text are shown in full. Neither item sets a licence field (get_item returned none). Search counts change as the Archive grows; these are from 1 November 2026 (UTC).
Lincoln's Speech At Gettysburg (1898) · Address of Hon. Edward Everett … (1864)
