Surratt Courier

[Houmes]

(02-16-2014 08:33 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Society members will soon be receiving their March issue of Surratt Courier (hopefully before the conference). The feature article is by our own Reignette Chilton of this forum, who shares her wealth of knowledge about the history of Mr. Lincoln's greatcoat - one of the iconic textiles of American history.

I was rummaging through some files and found a letter dated March 20, 1977 from Harold L. Peterson, Jr. (1922-1978), former Chief Curator of the National Park Service, with mention of the Lincoln coat:

"...I helped with the cleaning and treatment of it when we received it. It consists of a beautiful overcoat from Brooks Brothers quilted with patriotic designs on the lining. This had some pieces cut out of it by souvenir hunters. It is the coat he wore for his second inaugural speech. There is also the suit coat, waistcoat and breeches. There were blood stains on the collar which we did not want to remove since they were historical evidence but the suit was dirty, stained with the automatic voiding that occurs with a traumatic wound and just general dirt. Mrs. Lincoln had given the clothing to a doorkeeper at the White House. We wanted to get rid of the excremental material because of its damaging effect on the fabric and also the dirt of the ages. It was an interesting and complicated chemical problem. Incidentally, in the waistcoat pockets were tiny fragments of hard red and green candy which Lincoln is known to have enjoyed but also there was a fine brownish powder which appeared to be snuff, and Lincoln is supposed to have eschewed tobacco in all forms. We know that the suit was worn by a model for a sculptor much to Mrs. Lincoln's disgust since she did not approve of the woman who did the sculpting..."

The "woman sculptor" was undoubtedly Vinnie Ream.

A generous piece of the Lincoln coat is displayed at the Harlan-Lincoln House on the campus of Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, IA. Judge Harlan was the father-in-law of Robert Todd Lincoln.