President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address 150 years ago on Nov. 19, 1863, and Google has built a digital museum to commemorate the speech, one of the most famous in American history.
The digital space houses three exhibits that focus on Lincoln at Gettysburg, what the address inspired in American people, and the text of the speech, of which there are five versions. Google gathered material from the Library of Congress, the White House, the Lincoln Library, Cornell University and Dickinson College, and the exhibits are part of the company's Cultural Institute, a larger digital museum that hosts exhibits from different partners.
See also: 10 Amazing Google Earth and Maps Discoveries
Lincoln spoke just months after the decisive Battle of Gettysburg in which Union troops defeated the Confederacy and changed the course of the war. The Gettysburg Address lasted little more than two minutes, but Lincoln reframed the Civil War as a fight for human equality. He said a Union victory would signal the rebirth of freedom in America, a message that has echoed ever since.
His words from that day are printed in history textbooks across the country, but scholars are undecided on which of the five speeches Lincoln chose at Gettysburg. The fifth version gets the most credence, though. That's the one students read and the one engraved on the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C. One of the digital exhibits explores these versions more fully by comparing the different texts side-by-side.

One thing scholars do agree on, however, is that at some point, Lincoln said, "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here." So it turns out he was wrong about something in that speech — The world has long remembered the words he spoke, and they will now live on interactively, too.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Image: Wikimedia Commons