Because of technology, the word “copy” in relation to a document means something very different to us than it did to our ancestors. To us it means a photocopy or an electronic scan. But to past generations, it meant a second document done in pen and ink.

That would seem to be the explanation for the fact that the Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia has had an original copy of the document outlining the terms for Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Courthouose for many years, and had stored it away thinking it was just a photostat copy.

Coldren said it had been glued to a cardboard backing and varnished, an apparent attempt to preserve it.

“Old photostat copies from the ’20s and ’30s are shiny like that, so this is why you’d think this is not a real document,” he said.

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