Smithsonian Article - Printable Version

Smithsonian Article - Printable Version

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Smithsonian Article - Laurie Verge - 08-15-2012 12:05 PM

Here's an interesting article about how Lincoln's assassination benefited the funeral industry:

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/08/how-lincolns-assassination-launched-the-funeral-industry/

RE: Smithsonian Article - RJNorton - 08-15-2012 01:04 PM

Thank you, Laurie. Very interesting article.

Maybe I misunderstood what that article was saying, but in my files I have a gentleman named Dr. Charles D. Brown as the person who did the embalming of Abraham Lincoln. Maybe someone can clarify this, as perhaps I need to update what is in my files. Thanks.

RE: Smithsonian Article - Laurie Verge - 08-15-2012 03:36 PM

I agree with you, Roger. I thought it was Dr. Brown and an assistant from Alexandria, Virginia (?) who did the embalming and went with the corpse for "touch ups" along the way.

Maybe the Smithsonian failed to make a link between Mrs. Lincoln requesting Dr. Holmes, but ending up with Dr. Brown??? Does anyone know where Dr. Holmes was from?

Upon further investigation (as they say on TV), I found that Dr. Thomas Holmes offered to embalm the body of the Lincolns' friend, Col. Elmer Ellsworth, upon his murder at the beginning of the war. Mrs. Lincoln was so impressed with the results that she requested Holmes when Willie died.

However, Dr. Charles Brown was the embalmer of the President.

RE: Smithsonian Article - RJNorton - 08-16-2012 05:30 AM

Here's a newspaper ad promoting Dr. Brown's services:

RE: Smithsonian Article - Lindsey - 08-16-2012 08:33 AM

I always thought wakes and viewings that happened in the home had happened before all of this. Isn't that why they would lie (lay?) the dead out in the parlor and people would come to pay their respects etc. along with all of the other mourning practice? Also, I think Dr. Richard Burr was already doing the arterial embalming--he's the guy standing over the body in front of a tent in that iconic picture. I'll see if I can get it added but he has some sort of pump in his hand and I think that is what they used...

You have to love how blunt the Victorians were "Embalment of HUMAN BODIES" sadly that cracked me up!

RE: Smithsonian Article - Jim Garrett - 08-16-2012 10:30 AM

[quote='Laurie Verge' pid='2613' dateline='1345062973']
I agree with you, Roger. I thought it was Dr. Brown and an assistant from Alexandria, Virginia (?) who did the embalming and went with the corpse for "touch ups" along the way.

Maybe the Smithsonian failed to make a link between Mrs. Lincoln requesting Dr. Holmes, but ending up with Dr. Brown??? Does anyone know where Dr. Holmes was from?

RE: Smithsonian Article - Rsmyth - 08-16-2012 12:55 PM

Colonel Elmer Ellsworth was the first officer to die in the war and one of the first casualties …may have been one of the first to be embalmed in the United States and certainly the first Civil War death to be embalmed. His funeral preparations opened the door for embalming to become commonplace during the war. Doctor Thomas Holmes who saw an opportunity and opened an office in the nations capitol at the beginning of the war was the embalmer called upon to preserve the body of Ellsworth. By wars end, Doctor Thomas Holmes who advertised his “petrifying” services and would later be called “the father of American embalming,” claimed to have preserved over 4,000 bodies by setting up battlefield embalming stations.

Henry Pratt Cattell embalmed Willie Lincoln the 11 year old son who died on Feb. 20, 1862. According to an interview Cattell gave in 1901 he went alone to the White House and embalmed the President using “Chloride of zinc.”
The firm of Brown and Alexander were paid $260 for their service and 160 to accompany the remains to Springfield.

RE: Smithsonian Article - Laurie Verge - 08-16-2012 01:38 PM

Jim - your Southern roots are showing! I debated using the word "murder" in describing Col. Ellsworth's death because of the two viewpoints. He took it upon himself to charge up the stairs of the Marshall House in Alexandria, Virginia, to haul down that Confederate flag. Technically, I do not believe it was a military action, however. The owner of the establishment was protecting his property, but did the nature of the incident require shooting Ellsworth?

Rich - thanks for the correction on who embalmed Willie. The biography that I found on Holmes gives the impression that he did it because Mrs. Lincoln asked for him.

In the process of double-checking info on Holmes, I stumbled upon a page of explicit instructions as to how to embalm a body. It was exactly like an on-site instruction that a few of us got many years ago while researching for our popular exhibit on Victorian mourning customs. There are several funeral homes in the D.C. area that date back to the Civil War era. One of them is the Lee Funeral Home. We were invited to tour, look through their archives, and get a lesson on both embalming and cremation -- WAY MORE THAN I EVER WANTED TO KNOW!

I told my friends as we walked out the door that, if my mother were to die the next day, I would put her in my car, drive to our family cemetery, dig her grave, and bury her myself. No undertaker was going to touch anyone I loved!

RE: Smithsonian Article - BettyO - 08-16-2012 01:43 PM

Very interesting -

I've always had an interest in Victorian mourning customs -- but....I'm with you, Laurie!

When I go, no embalming, no display....throw me in a simple wooden coffin, let the minister say his piece and put me under!

RE: Smithsonian Article - Gene C - 08-16-2012 01:54 PM

This might seem appropriate now....interesting video on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FJNZyhRfA4

hope you have a macabre sense of humor

RE: Smithsonian Article - Ed Steers - 08-20-2012 01:25 PM

(08-15-2012 03:36 PM)Laurie Verge Wrote: I agree with you, Roger. I thought it was Dr. Brown and an assistant from Alexandria, Virginia (?) who did the embalming and went with the corpse for "touch ups" along the way.

Maybe the Smithsonian failed to make a link between Mrs. Lincoln requesting Dr. Holmes, but ending up with Dr. Brown??? Does anyone know where Dr. Holmes was from?

Upon further investigation (as they say on TV), I found that Dr. Thomas Holmes offered to embalm the body of the Lincolns' friend, Col. Elmer Ellsworth, upon his murder at the beginning of the war. Mrs. Lincoln was so impressed with the results that she requested Holmes when Willie died.

However, Dr. Charles Brown was the embalmer of the President.

According to the "Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia" (ahem) Henry Cattell was the embalmer of both Willie and his father. Cattell worked for Alexander and Brown. Ed Steers

RE: Smithsonian Article - Laurie Verge - 08-20-2012 02:06 PM

Thanks for the clarification, Ed. Your Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia is always right beside my desk. I have no idea why I didn't think to look in it.

PS: This really is a book that assassination students should have in their collection - and it just so happens that we sell it at Surratt House.