Clara Harris's Bloody Dress

[Linda Anderson]

The story of the dress that Clara Harris wore on the night of the assassination is related in Things That Go Bump in the Night, a New York State Book by Louis C. Jones. The book is about the "stories of ghosts kept alive by the telling and retelling of our people." Mr. Jones "had been interested in folklore since the time I heard Carl Sandburg sing and talk at Hamilton College in 1929..."

"There was a legend current in Albany during my youth which Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews made into a very successful short story called "The White Satin Dress..."

After the assassination, Clara returned to Albany "after she became Major Rathbone's bride. There was one memento, however, that could bring the whole evening back to her on bitter wings; that was the satin dress she had had made for the occasion. Never again could she bring herself to wear it, not to dispose of it. It hung by itself in her closet, spotted with the blood of the nation's beloved President and of her own beloved husband. Eventually the Rathbones decided to move from the home where the dress had long hung. There was considerable discussion about it: should Clara destroy it, or take it with her? For reasons of her own she did not want to see it moved from its place. A solution was hit upon; the lady moved out of her old home satisfied that she had made the best possible disposal of the gown. This much of the story I [Jones] knew as a boy.

"Miss Andrews's story deals with descendants of the family which next occupied the house. They were related to a Governor of Massachusetts, who, on one occasion, came to visit. The Governor was faced with a difficult decision: a bill had been passed by his legislature which he believed important for his state's welfare, but it had provoked a major political storm. It seemed unlikely that he could be re-elected if he signed it and he could rationalize a veto easy enough. It was the old question of whether to act like a politician or a statesman." The Governor had an uneasy night in the guest bedroom trying to resolve his problem. "At length he slept, only to awaken with a start. There was someone in the room with him; he raised himself on his elbow to see standing in the moonlight the figure of Lincoln, calm, patient and with an understanding smile upon his lips. Then the presence was gone, and the Governor was alone with the moonlight. He was wide awake now and he moved to turn on the light, during which he knocked over on the floor a volume of Lincoln's speeches which had been on the stand by his bed. As he picked it up he saw the words, 'Hew honestly to the line; let the Lord take care of the chips.' Then he knew he would sign the controversial bill, and he did sign it. To his surprise he was re-elected that fall to serve his state even more ably than he had before." The end of the story has the owners doing some remodeling in the guest bedroom and finding in the closet "the gown with the stain of Lincoln's blood upon it."

Clara's dress has been the subject of "numerous ghost stories."

"In the summer Clara Harris went to her family's little summer house just outside Albany, taking her dress along. It was inconceivable for her to have it cleaned up for use, yet she could not bring herself to burn it or throw it away. She put it in a closet. It was hanging there one year to the day from the assassination when she awoke in the night, she told her family, to the sound of low laughter. She said it had been Lincoln, enjoying the play he was watching when Booth's bullet struck. Only a dream, people told her. But a year later, it was said, a guest sleeping in the room came to breakfast with the same story... In 1910, a year before his mad father's death, Representative Rathbone [Clara and Henry's son], so Albany papers said, broke down the bricks walling in his mother's dress last worn forty-five years earlier and burned it, saying it had cursed his family. (SMITH, "The Haunted Major")

http://www.chicagohistory.org/wetwithblo...ments2.htm

[Eva Elisabeth]

There was another book written about the dress and its story, "The White Satin Dress", by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews in 1929.
The entire "Haunted Major" - article is here:
http://www.americanheritage.com/content/...jor?page=2
(...but the last passages IMO contain misinformation at least twice).

[Linda Anderson]

(11-01-2013 09:38 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  There was another book written about the dress and its story, "The White Satin Dress", by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews in 1929.
The entire "Haunted Major" - article is here:
http://www.americanheritage.com/content/...jor?page=2
(...but the last passages IMO contain misinformation at least twice).

Thanks, Eva.

Here's more information from the Chicago Historical Society on Clara's dress.

"The Chicago Historical Society's collection includes two stained dress fragments associated with Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

"A white silk fragment is attributed to Clara Harris, the young woman sharing the Lincoln's box seat at the Ford's Theatre the night of the assassination. A brief note describes the fragment as a remnant of a sleeve lining."

http://www.chicagohistory.org/wetwithblo.../index.htm

[Eva Elisabeth]

Er, it's late...the book is mentioned on your link (the "Haunted Major" immediately caught my eye). However, interesting site (and story) indeed, Linda!

[Linda Anderson]

(11-01-2013 10:10 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Er, it's late...the book is mentioned on your link (the "Haunted Major" immediately caught my eye). However, interesting site (and story) indeed, Linda!

What time is it for you?

[Eva Elisabeth]

3:15 AM (one week ago it would have been 4:15 - DST).

[Linda Anderson]

That is late!

Most of the U.S. will go back to Standard Time this Sunday.

[RJNorton]

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?

[Linda Anderson]

The white silk fragment at the Chicago Historical Society is described "as a remnant of a sleeve lining." Betty & Laurie, would the lining have been made of the same material as the rest of the dress?

[L Verge]

I am allergic to needle and thread, so I know very little about sewing and have never really studied dress construction. The few that I have seen either had only the bodice lined or were fully lined with a blue material made specifically for that purpose. I don't know if that color would show through on a white gown -- and that lining material may have come in a variety of colors. Donna might know more about this than I.

I also noticed in the very first posting that there was a statement that Clara had the dress made especially for the occasion. If they received their invitation late in the day on the 14th - which they did - that statement is false. Even Elizabeth Keckly wasn't that good.

[LincolnMan]

(11-02-2013 05:00 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?

[Linda Anderson]

(11-03-2013 12:44 PM)LincolnMan Wrote:  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?

The New York Historical Society "has a letter that Clara Harris wrote to her friend Mary describing that frightful night. She describes Mrs. Lincoln seeing blood on Clara’s dress and screaming, 'oh! my husbands blood.' Only later would they learn that it was mostly Henry’s blood on Clara’s dress from his severe stab wound."

The Currier & Ives print shows Clara wearing a lavender dress. The print also shows Tad at his father's death bed which we know he was not.

http://blog.nyhistory.org/attending-ford...-rathbone/

Here is another article from the Schenectady Gazette titled "Lincoln Ghost Haunted Loudenville." There is an old photo of Loudon Cottage included in the article.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=19...19,7800179

[LincolnMan]

Linda: that's right- I remember that now. It didn't seem plausible that it would be Lincoln's blood.

[Linda Anderson]

(11-03-2013 02:46 PM)LincolnMan Wrote:  Linda: that's right- I remember that now. It didn't seem plausible that it would be Lincoln's blood.

I guess it doesn't matter much whose blood it is if you want to tell a good ghost story.

[RJNorton]

Linda, the one sentence in Clara's letter that really caught my eye was, "The President’s wound did not bleed externally..” I believe this is also in line with what at least one of the doctors also said.

This makes me wonder if some claims have been exaggerated.

Seaton Munroe, an attorney, met up with Laura Keene as she was departing the State Box and related:

"Making a motion to arrest her progress, I begged her to tell me if Mr. Lincoln was still alive. "God only knows!" she gasped, stopping for a moment's rest. The memory of that apparition will never leave me. Attired, as I had so often seen her, in the costume of her part in "Our American Cousin", her hair and dress were in disorder, and not only was her gown soaked in Lincoln's blood, but her hands, and even her cheeks where her fingers had strayed, were bedaubed with the sorry stains!"

Could the blood on Laura Keene's dress be entirely Rathbone's blood in truth?