Obama chooses Lincoln's Bible for inauguration

Bible is part of collection of Library of Congress

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updated 10:43 a.m. ET Dec. 23, 2008

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama will use the same Bible at his inauguration that Abraham Lincoln used for his swearing in.

Obama will be the first president since Lincoln to use that Bible, part of the collection of the Library of Congress.

"President-elect Obama is deeply honored that the Library of Congress has made the Lincoln Bible available for use during his swearing-in," Presidential Inaugural Committee Executive Director Emmett Beliveau said in a statement Tuesday.

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Obama is also tracing the train route that Lincoln took and holding a welcome event at the Lincoln Memorial ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration.

The burgundy velvet Bible with gilded edges was purchased and inscribed by William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the Supreme Court.

It will be on display at the Library of Congress February 12 to May 9 as part of an exhibition titled "With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition." The exhibit will then travel to five other American cities in commemoration of the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth on Feb. 12, 1809.