Is It True?

[L Verge]

The current issue of The Dispatch, newsletter of the Civil War Round Table of New York, makes mention of Abraham Lincoln sending Judah Benjamin a Happy Chanuka card in December of 1861. It was returned unopened. Is this true?

[Thomas Kearney]

I don't know.

[Gene C]

insufficient postage

[HerbS]

Who knows?

[Susan Higginbotham]

I checked "Lincoln and the Jews" and didn't find any reference to such a card, at least that a search through the index could bring up. The story sounds rather unlikely to me; I don't think most non-Jewish Americans in the 1860s would have paid much attention to Hanukkah, a minor Jewish holiday which hadn't acquired its present status as an alternative to Christmas. And if Hanukkah cards existed at the time, I doubt they would have been widely sold outside of Jewish neighborhoods.

[RJNorton]

insufficient postage

Maybe this was the problem with Elvis's letter?

I checked "Lincoln and the Jews" and didn't find any reference to such a card, at least that a search through the index could bring up. The story sounds rather unlikely to me; I don't think most non-Jewish Americans in the 1860s would have paid much attention to Hanukkah, a minor Jewish holiday which hadn't acquired its present status as an alternative to Christmas. And if Hanukkah cards existed at the time, I doubt they would have been widely sold outside of Jewish neighborhoods.

I agree with Susan. I also checked "The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln" and there is no mention of this card. Laurie, did the article say if the card is still in existence? (private collection, museum, library, etc. - I will guess not)

[L Verge]

This brief note is listed only on a CW calendar portion that is a running feature - absolutely no other information.

My first instinct was the same as Susan's reference whether or not Hanukkah cards were even produced at that time (since Christian Christmas cards were relatively new).

[Susan Higginbotham]

Perhaps the newsletter editors were being tongue-in-cheek?

[L Verge]

I think this next info is very likely true: I just had a visitor walk into my office for information - and he gave me even more information! This gentleman retired from the National Archives recently, having served as a security guard for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (and yes, they do automatically go down into a bomb-proof vault each night before the security guard is allowed to leave). Because he was on duty with the documents, he ended up being the guide also and did his homework!

Is This True? There are 4300 words in the Constitution. Six of the signers also signed the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin was the oldest signer (age 72 - I have also heard that he was brought in via sedan chair because of walking problems). The calligraphy was done by a father-and-son team, Joseph and Francis Shallus, who were paid $30 and had to get it done on a three-day weekend in order to get it ready for the signing.

There was much more, but I couldn't write fast enough. He promised to bring me back more things. Trust me, if I were still teaching, this gentleman would have been a speaker in my classroom along about this time of the year when I got to the establishment of government. Unless you tell me that his information is wrong.

[L Verge]

Moving on to another fact or fiction topic: In the process of finding an appropriate Victorian theme for the 2016 Christmas displays at Surratt House, the subject of BELLS came up. One of my staff members said that the only thing she knew about Victorian bells was the history of bells being rigged up outside a grave so that if someone was buried alive, a small chain attached inside the coffin could be pulled to ring for help outside.

That reminded me of a story that had been told to me while I was in elementary school. My grandmother did the telling and said that she had learned it from a guide at Robert E. Lee's birthplace (fantastic Stratford Hall in Virginia) several decades before (ca. 1930). Years later, I mentioned it while on tour at Stratford Hall - and thought I would get kicked off the property the way the guide acted!

Anyhow, my staff member went looking for sources of the story. Result is here https://www.lewrockwell.com/2005/01/gail...ied-alive/ Despite some protests from historians, I'm sticking to the family story and its shades of Edgar Allen Poe!

[Donna McCreary]

Moving on to another fact or fiction topic: In the process of finding an appropriate Victorian theme for the 2016 Christmas displays at Surratt House, the subject of BELLS came up. One of my staff members said that the only thing she knew about Victorian bells was the history of bells being rigged up outside a grave so that if someone was buried alive, a small chain attached inside the coffin could be pulled to ring for help outside.

That reminded me of a story that had been told to me while I was in elementary school. My grandmother did the telling and said that she had learned it from a guide at Robert E. Lee's birthplace (fantastic Stratford Hall in Virginia) several decades before (ca. 1930). Years later, I mentioned it while on tour at Stratford Hall - and thought I would get kicked off the property the way the guide acted!

Anyhow, my staff member went looking for sources of the story. Result is here https://www.lewrockwell.com/2005/01/gail...ied-alive/ Despite some protests from historians, I'm sticking to the family story and its shades of Edgar Allen Poe!

Safety coffins were invented so that if need be, a person buried alive could ring a bell that would be heard throughout the cemetery.
Gives a whole new interpretation to a Christmas bell choir . . .

[Eva Elisabeth]

Reminds me of this real bad fake:
   

[RJNorton]

Safety coffins were invented so that if need be, a person buried alive could ring a bell that would be heard throughout the cemetery.
Gives a whole new interpretation to a Christmas bell choir . . .

George Washington feared being buried alive. And his nephew, U. S. Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington, had the fear also. He requested:

"My Body is to be placed in an entirely plain coffin with a flat Top and a sufficient number of holes bored through the lid and sides--particularly about the face and head to allow Respiration if Resuscitation should take place."

[L Verge]

All this talk about bells reminds us that they were instruments of communication for our ancestors. They rang to summon people to church, to announce a wedding, to warn of danger, and to mourn a citizen's passing. They also proclaimed the crowning of rulers.

One of my favorite poems has always been Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells." I did not know until recently that it has actually been set to music. As Gene is prone to say, "This reminds me of a song..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3FzveBu_34