Lincoln's Voice

Lincoln's voice is found in the Museum of History Offices. It is located in the Library (the 2-story room with the turret), upstairs, on a desk to the left of the hole blown in the main room up there.

The object itself is a phonautograph, the earliest known recording device invented by Frenchman Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1857. Unlike Edison's phonograph invented years later in 1877, the phonautograph was only designed to transcribe sound waves for visual analysis, and incapable of playing back a recording.

Hannibal Hamlin will give you 50 caps for it, 100 with a speech check. Also, Abraham Washington will pay you 60 caps, and 120 after a speech check.

The recording is part of the unmarked Lincoln's Profit Margins quest.

Behind the scenes

 * This is a reference to a legend that such a recording was actually made of Lincoln's voice in 1863 by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville himself . Since the story did not appear until the 1960s, its authenticity is questionable.