Mary Lincoln's Final Pension Battle

[kerry]

I recently wrote a long article that was published here:

Introduction

It follows the story using newspaper articles, so it may be tedious for some, but I thought it was interesting enough to write about it. I think it's helpful to lay out the media coverage so people can draw their own conclusions about things. Questions/suggestions welcome.

[Steve]

(07-31-2017 09:35 PM)kerry Wrote:  I recently wrote a long article that was published here:

Introduction

It follows the story using newspaper articles, so it may be tedious for some, but I thought it was interesting enough to write about it. I think it's helpful to lay out the media coverage so people can draw their own conclusions about things. Questions/suggestions welcome.

The article is interesting but it is long, I've only gotten to chapter 4 so far because I've been busy. I do have a suggestion, though. The newspaper quotations need to be either indented or a different color. Because of the number of article quotations sometimes it's difficult to tell when I'm reading your words or a newspaper account until you get to source citation at the end.

[kerry]

(08-01-2017 05:05 PM)Steve Wrote:  

(07-31-2017 09:35 PM)kerry Wrote:  I recently wrote a long article that was published here:

Introduction

It follows the story using newspaper articles, so it may be tedious for some, but I thought it was interesting enough to write about it. I think it's helpful to lay out the media coverage so people can draw their own conclusions about things. Questions/suggestions welcome.

The article is interesting but it is long, I've only gotten to chapter 4 so far because I've been busy. I do have a suggestion, though. The newspaper quotations need to be either indented or a different color. Because of the number of article quotations sometimes it's difficult to tell when I'm reading your words or a newspaper account until you get to source citation at the end.

'

Thanks for reading! The quotes are in a different font, but there should be more contrast between them. It was hard to preserve formatting when I submitted it. I'll ask the webmaster to make it easier to discern.

[RJNorton]

The Garfield assassination is mentioned in chapter 4.

Is it known if there were any exchanges between Mary Lincoln and Lucretia Garfield after the shooting in 1881? I am curious if Mary made any attempts at comforting Lucretia either during the time her husband lingered or after his death.

[Eva Elisabeth]

(08-01-2017 06:29 PM)kerry Wrote:  

(08-01-2017 05:05 PM)Steve Wrote:  

(07-31-2017 09:35 PM)kerry Wrote:  I recently wrote a long article that was published here:

Introduction

It follows the story using newspaper articles, so it may be tedious for some, but I thought it was interesting enough to write about it. I think it's helpful to lay out the media coverage so people can draw their own conclusions about things. Questions/suggestions welcome.

The article is interesting but it is long, I've only gotten to chapter 4 so far because I've been busy. I do have a suggestion, though. The newspaper quotations need to be either indented or a different color. Because of the number of article quotations sometimes it's difficult to tell when I'm reading your words or a newspaper account until you get to source citation at the end.

'

Thanks or reading! The quotes are in a different font, but there should be more contrast between them. It was hard to preserve formatting when I submitted it. I'll ask the webmaster to make it easier to discern.

Why didn't you use quotation marks or Italics?

[kerry]

I wanted the articles to appear in full, like they were in the papers, letting the story unfold with minimal narrative. The majority of the piece is pages of quotations. Doing the whole thing in Italics seemed difficult to read, and quotation marks didn't have enough contrast (and made the headlines look weird). I used quotes where I referred to sources in my narrative paragraphs, usually for sources like letters. I'm sorry for the confusion!

It was reported that Mary wrote to Mrs. Garfield - I think I mention it in the article at some point. I have not been able to find any references to it among the Garfield papers, although it's known Robert wrote to her. If the report was true, I'm not sure if it has been overlooked or if it was destroyed out of respect for its personal nature. Mary wasn't writing much of anything at this point, but it seems likely she would make an exception in that case.