Clara Harris's Bloody Dress

[LincolnMan]

(11-02-2013 04:00 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  We have often discussed whether or not Henry Rathbone was in uniform that night. But back in 2008 we were discussing the color of Clara Harris' dress on Abraham Lincoln Online's Friends of Lincoln Mailbag. Bill Nash has probably forgotten this, but he wrote Ford's Theatre with this question. Bill then forwarded Ford's response to me. I still have Bill's forwarded email. The reply from Gloria Swift, Ford's curator at that time, said we "do not know the color of the dress that Clara Harris was wearing." Sounds like maybe it was white?

Thanks Roger for reminding me of that. Boy, that seems like a long time ago. When was it? As I was reading the excellent post that started this thread- i noticed that Clara's dress was said to have the blood of both Rathbone and Lincoln on it. Maybe this has been discussed before -so forgive if it has- did Clara claim to have Lincoln's blood on it? Did she have that kind of contact with him? How could the blood have been verified as from whom?