Assasination relics: Clothing, chairs, death-scene stuff, and other macabre items

[Tim1965]

I've grown curious about the location of Lincoln assassination artifacts. A great many of these are moving about, due to anniversary exhibits, and I wasn't sure what, exactly, had survived. I tried to work up a list of major artifacts (Lincoln's clothings, Ford's box furnishings, etc.), noting those which were bloodstained (the more gruesome, the more people want to see them, I suppose).

The major items that seem missing? Lincoln's dress shirt, most of Lincoln's undershirt, Lincoln's undergarment and socks, and one conspirator's hood. Given the proprieties of the age, it may be that Lincoln's undergarment and sock were never removed and buried with him.

But most sources say the dress shirt and undershirt were cut (in whole or in part, it's unclear) from the president's body by physicians as they tried to find Lincoln's wounds. These most likely were taken to the Peterson house along with the rest of the President's clothing.

I'm assuming that nothing of the original box survived the 1865 gutting of the theatre. I've run across claims of wallpaper clippings, but provenance is really sketchy. It's unclear if the box was carpeted; I would doubt it.

Am I missing anything important?

- - - - -

Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Mich. - Blood-stained rocking chair from the Ford's Theatre box.

Chicago History Museum, Chicago, Ill. – Frame of the Lincoln deathbed; full blood-stained undersheet on which Lincoln lay; blood-stained mattress from the deathbed; bloody bolster pillow on which Lincoln's head lay; bloody frock coat worn by Lincoln; blood-stained towel used at the Peterson house; Peterson house rocking chair, bureau, candlestick, two engravings, and gas jet walll sconce; Mary Todd Lincoln's blood-stained cape; padded hood used by conspirator Lewis Powell; sleeve of Lincoln's undershirt.

Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C. – Derringer Booth used to kill Lincoln; Booth's knife used on Major Rathbone; two blood-stained pillows from the deathbed (one too fragile for display); Treasury Guard flag used as bunting in the Ford's box; original lithograph of George Washington from the Ford's box; sofa on which Rathbone sat in the Ford's box; carved-back, cane-seat parlor chair from the Ford's box; Lincoln's blood-stained overcoat; Lincoln's stovepipe hat; contents of Lincoln's pockets (linen handkerchief, two pairs of glasses, pocketknife, $5 Confederate note); Lincoln's waistcoat, blood-stained trousers, tie, and boots; one padded hood worn by conspirators; Door No. 7 (with peephole) to Ford's box; wooden stick used by Booth to wedge the door leading to Ford's box.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, Ill. – Lincoln's blood-stained gloves.

Lincoln Federal Savings and Loan, Berwyn, Ill. - Fragment of blood-stained shirt. (According to a Chicago Tribune article in 1960, this was cut from Lincoln's dress shirt by the undertaker)

Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisc. – Bedspread from the Lincoln deathbed. (Provenance is murky; testing was occuring in 2015, but the outcome is not clear.)

Abraham Lincoln Foundation of The Union League of Philadelphia – Fragment of Lincoln's undershirt.

National Museum of Health and Medicine, Silver Spring, Md. – Bullet taken from Lincoln's skull; Lincoln skull fragments; attending physician's bloody shirt cuffs.

The Columns Museum in Milford, Pa. - Blood-stained American flag from Ford's box used to cushion Lincoln's head. (The other two American flags are apparently missing.)

Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford, Conn. – Treasury guard flag (to the left side of the Ford's box; one of two).

Kansas Museum of History, Topeka, Kan. - Portion of gallows crossbeam from conspirators' Arsenal hanging. (Not on public display.)

Historical Society of Quincy and Adams Counties, Ill. - One padded hood worn by conspirators; one set of manacles worn by conspirators; one set of keys to the Arsenal jail cells; one key to the Old Capital Prison jail cell.

Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. – Lewis Powell's knife used in the Seward attack.

Studebaker National Museum, South Bend, Ind. – Lincoln's carriage, used the night of the assassination.

Private collections - Fragments of Laura Keene's bloody dress (if one assumes she got into the box); fragments of the deathbed oversheet (cut into thumb-sized fragments and given away to hundreds [?] of people).

[RJNorton]

Wow, Tim - kudos on all your research!

I can add one item for which I do not know the provenance. The Drummer Boy Civil War Museum in Andersonville, Georgia, claims to have the bonnet Mary Surratt wore to the gallows.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/25295

[BettyO]

May I add Seward Museum, Auburn NY - blood stained and knife slashed bed sheet from Seward attack. Surratt House Museum - night shirt Davey Herald slept in;
handkerchief belonging to Anna Surratt; parlor table and writing desk which was in Mrs Surratt's H Street boarding house parlor. Two locks of John Wilkes Booth's hair - Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, VA; also door to the monitor Montauk - MOC, Richmond, VA. Various artifacts (dresser, cane, etc.) made by Edmund Spangler displayed at Dr. Samuel Mudd House; also artifacts made/owned by Dr. Samuel Mudd - including a cribbage board, his medical books and instruments as well as the sofa on which JWB lay when Dr. Mudd set his leg on April 15, 1865. Port Royal Museum, Port Royal, VA - brick from Garrett House Foundation; large metal hinges from tobacco barn in which JWB was shot. Death Warrent of Lewis Powell given to Dr. Abram Gillette July 7, 1865 - West Point Military Academy Museum, NY.

Private collections - piece of JWB crutch; cloth lining and key to Lewis Powell's coffin (final burial). Pieces of flooring and nails from Arsenal (Fort Leslie J. McNair) trial room; brick from Old Arsenal. Powell family photographs; Powell family bible; Lew Powell's mother's soup tureen and muffin tin, marble topped mahogany table which stood in Powell family parlor. Piece of lace headdress worn by Mary Lincoln to Ford's Theatre; original Ulke photograph of Lincoln's death bed....

[Eva Elisabeth]

I second the kudos and find it a very good idea to have a thread that compiles and lists them all. Thanks (to everyone adding info)!

[LincolnMan]

The list would make a good book on the subject.

[J. Beckert]

Hello, Tim. You need to hear from forum members Rich Smythe and Jim Garrett - the Assassination relic gurus.

I believe they have a book out on this and Rich also has some information on the box itself. If I remember right, it was there until maybe the collapse, but was boarded off.

Hope they chime in.

[Tim1965]

(06-24-2016 08:25 AM)J. Beckert Wrote:  Hello, Tim. You need to hear from forum members Rich Smythe and Jim Garrett - the Assassination relic gurus.

I believe they have a book out on this and Rich also has some information on the box itself. If I remember right, it was there until maybe the collapse, but was boarded off.

Hope they chime in.

I've read very little about the post-1865 office renovations, just what's in George Olszeweski's Restoration of Ford's Theatre. And he does't describe in any real depth the changes to the building from theatre to office building in late 1865. (Were one or both boxes ripped out? Did Richard Dunbar extend the Dress Circle and/or Family Circle across the open space of the auditorium to create full floors, or did he just enclose them? Or where Dunbar's changes more minimal than even that?)

As for locks of hair.... One would think Lincoln went to the grave bald, given the vast amount of Lincoln hair floating about.

[Gene C]

I don't know if this answers your questions, but it's interesting.

https://archive.org/stream/historicalarc...0/mode/2up

speaking of George's book, here it is
https://archive.org/details/restorationoffor00olsz

[Tim1965]

(06-24-2016 11:24 AM)Gene C Wrote:  I don't know if this answers your questions, but it's interesting.

https://archive.org/stream/historicalarc...0/mode/2up

speaking of George's book, here it is
https://archive.org/details/restorationoffor00olsz

Olszewski's book is also available on HathiTrust (which is faster than Archive.org, at least on my computer). The link is:

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3599592

[Jim Garrett]

Lincoln Assassination relics just keep popping up. Rich and I (mostly Rich) have compiled over 700 pages of relics and artifacts, and over the years we have kind of realized we've just scratched the surface. We've run across many spurious items, some more comical than others, but along the way, we've made many friends.

At this time, Rich & I are working incredibly long hours and the relic book is on the back burner for a little while. We are looking at the possibility of self publishing the relic book as an ebook, but it still is a little ways off. In the meantime, there's always graves to dig up.

[Diane T. Putney]

(06-24-2016 09:36 AM)Tim1965 Wrote:  

(06-24-2016 08:25 AM)J. Beckert Wrote:  Hello, Tim. You need to hear from forum members Rich Smythe and Jim Garrett - the Assassination relic gurus.

I believe they have a book out on this and Rich also has some information on the box itself. If I remember right, it was there until maybe the collapse, but was boarded off.

Hope they chime in.

I've read very little about the post-1865 office renovations, just what's in George Olszeweski's Restoration of Ford's Theatre. And he does't describe in any real depth the changes to the building from theatre to office building in late 1865. (Were one or both boxes ripped out? Did Richard Dunbar extend the Dress Circle and/or Family Circle across the open space of the auditorium to create full floors, or did he just enclose them? Or where Dunbar's changes more minimal than even that?)

As for locks of hair.... One would think Lincoln went to the grave bald, given the vast amount of Lincoln hair floating about.

I have researched the pre- and post-assassination Ford’s Theatre, so perhaps I can provide some information about the building that may be helpful. I think the idea of the preservation of the presidential box beyond 1865 is a myth.
After the government seized the theater and leased it from Ford, the building was gutted. Internally it was a shell. Gone were the stage, overhead walkways, proscenium arch, presidential box and other boxes, dress circle, family circle, and dome. The orchestra and parquette ground floor was torn away.
Richard Dunbar from Brooklyn won the bidding competition against nine other contractors and internally was to construct a “fire-proof building.” Part of the standard fireproofing process was to construct concrete and brick floors instead of wooden floors. After constructing a massive brick foundation in the cellar and building the first floor, Dunbar brought in subcontracted experts to set up the iron framework of columns, girders, and beams to support the heavy second and third floors.
The presidential box was built into the proscenium arch, which framed the stage. When that arch was torn out, the box was necessarily dismantled. Ford was allowed to keep salvageable parts of the arch, which he thought “only valuable as fire wood,” and the iron columns. Nothing of the foundational architecture of the box, the framing of the box, remained in the building. None of the statements of work about the renovation or the records from the files of the quartermaster general, in charge of the project, mentioned preserving, working around, or reinstalling the box.
The original purpose of the renovation was to construct a “giant warehouse” for the “Rebel Archives,” the captured Confederate records under the supervision of Francis Lieber.
The renovation consisted of two stages from 1) theater to warehouse and from 2) warehouse to museum/office building. Once the Army surgeon general asked Secretary Stanton for the building in late November and early December 1865, and he agreed, additional construction had to occur, such as installing a boiler and heating system. Dunbar only worked on the first, main stage of the renovation, and he did more than just build floors.
I think the myth of the box’s preservation started when the Evening Star in October 1865 stated plainly that the presidential box “has been preserved entire, and will be placed as near as possible in its former position.”
This incorrect news article had credibility because the lease stated that if by February 1, 1866 the government did not purchase the building outright, Ford would get it back in its original condition. The government, for example, stored the audience chairs in a warehouse in case of a give-back. Stanton had to wait until Congress reconvened and appropriated the money before he could buy the building.
I have looked at many 19th century government reports and news articles about the 1893 collapse, but found no reference to the presidential box in the rubble.
In 1942 the assistant director of the National Park Service learned from Ford’s grandson that the box was not preserved by the family and that “the only preserved section of the box is the door, already donated to the museum.”
I’m a bit embarrassed about the long entry here, but I hope it helps to clarify what happened to the box and theater.

[L Verge]

This is a great article! Would you consider expanding on this with an article for the Surratt Courier? Or, will you give permission for me to cut and paste this into an upcoming issue this fall?

[LincolnMan]

Great information.

[Thomas Kearney]

(06-27-2016 10:56 AM)L Verge Wrote:  This is a great article! Would you consider expanding on this with an article for the Surratt Courier? Or, will you give permission for me to cut and paste this into an upcoming issue this fall?

I would love to see it in the Courier along with the info I hope to acquire about Baptist Alley. Still no word on the appointment though.

[J. Beckert]

(06-27-2016 07:28 AM)Diane T. Putney Wrote:  I’m a bit embarrassed about the long entry here, but I hope it helps to clarify what happened to the box and theater.

Embarrassed?! That was fantastic! Thank you!