Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office on the same Bible that President Abraham Lincoln used when he was inaugurated in 1861.

“The president-elect is committed to holding an inauguration that celebrates America’s unity, and the use of this historic Bible will provide a powerful connection to our common past and common heritage,” said Emmett Beliveau, executive director of the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Obama, who will be sworn in as the 44th president on Jan. 20, will be the first to use Lincoln’s Bible at his inauguration. The Bible is part of the collection of the Library of Congress, the inaugural committee said in a release.

Throughout his campaign and during the transition, Obama has invited comparisons to Lincoln. Although Obama is a Democrat and Lincoln was a Republican, each served in the Illinois state legislature before seeking the presidency and each is identified with a message of racial reconciliation.

Obama announced his candidacy in early 2007 on the steps of the Illinois Old State Capitol in Springfield, where Lincoln in 1858 gave his famed “House Divided” speech about the perils of a “half slave, half free” union. When Obama relinquished his U.S. Senate seat after the Nov. 4 election, he quoted Lincoln in asking Americans concerned about the economy to “confidently hope that all will yet be well.”

‘Team of Rivals’

When asked on the campaign trail earlier this year how he would fashion an Obama administration, he cited “Team of Rivals,” a book by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin about Lincoln assembling a cabinet that included several who had sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1860.

Obama has followed that model, selecting Democratic primary rivals Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as his vice presidential nominee, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York as secretary of state and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico as secretary of commerce.

Also like Lincoln, Obama and his family will travel by train to Washington for the inauguration. “The trip marks the final leg of a journey that began on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Illinois and will culminate on the steps of the United States Capitol,” the inaugural committee said in a statement earlier this month.

The 1,280-page Bible used in Lincoln’s inauguration was published in 1853 by the Oxford University Press, the inaugural committee said.

According to the committee’s release, the Bible was purchased by William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the Supreme Court, for Lincoln’s swearing-in ceremony on March 4, 1861. The release said the “Lincoln family Bible, which is also in the Library of Congress collection, was unavailable for the ceremony because it was packed away with the First Family’s belongings, still en route from Springfield, Illinois, to their new home at the White House.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 23, 2008 13:25 EST