When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, he will be doing so on a rare artifact, The Lincoln Bible. Kept in the Library of Congress, the Bible is the same one President Abraham Lincoln took his presidential oath of office on. The bible has not been used since March 4, 1861.
In these photos, curator Clark Evans displays the burgundy velvet, gilt-edged Lincoln Inaugural Bible at the Library of Congress in Washington.

Photos by the Associated Press, copyrighted