First Ladies: Influence and Image

[Gene C]

I agree with the above, I was disappointed, but glad I watched it. It was interesting, I only caught the last hour of the show. Of the two experts, Ms Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, was not dealing in her specialty, and had in my opinion, limited knowledge on Mary Lincoln. I'll blame "C-Spam" for not getting someone more knowledgable about Mary. The guy, Richard Norton Smith, was much better.

Correct me if misunderstood her, but she stated the reason Mary purchased so many gloves for Mr. Lincoln was to protect him from germs. It was almost comical. She blamed paragoric and laudanum for much of Mary's erratic behavior. She was also very critical of Robert Lincoln.

To me, the more you learn about Mary, the more interesting she is. I think they could have used the 90 minutes much better. After watching the program, I don't feel they portrayed the real Mary Lincoln.

PS. thanks Roger, I'm going to watch this again to see what I missed