Mary Lincoln's Fashions

[Anita]

Thanks Anita...I wonder is that dress one of Keckley's creations? If so it had to have been created before the death of Willie Lincoln. She mostly wore mourning after that.

As for the youtube clip what fascinated me most was the diamond shaped heart Abraham Lincoln purchased for his wife in April 1862. It cost a fortune for it's time and is one of the most exquisite pieces of jewelry I have ever seen.

I too loved the diamond shaped heart. Lincoln bought Mary a number of lovely and expensive pieces of jewelry.

Question. What gifts did Mary give Lincoln?

[LincolnToddFan]

Other than four beloved sons he cherished, I really have no idea.But Ruth Painter Randall( Katherine Helm,Mary, Wife of Lincoln)writes of a small birthday dinner she organized for him in Feb 1843, his first birthday as her husband. She presented him with a cake and some black carpet slippers on which she had personally embroidered his initials AL and made a sweet little speech..."I am so happy you have a birthday...I am so grateful to your mother". (Daniel Mark Epstein, The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage pg#61)

She also had some sewing cushions she embroidered with her husband's face all over them. Until recently, these were in the private collection of Louise Taper. Now they are in the Lincoln Library and Museum.

She did have a new bed custom made for him in their Springfield home during the 1854 enlargement of the house, and yet another oversize bed built for her husband's comfort, ordered from Philadelphia during their WH years. It is the bed in which Willie Lincoln died and I doubt if Lincoln ever slept in it.

It eventually went to what was then the Prince of Wales Room. Now it's part of the Lincoln Bedroom.

[L Verge]

Few people know that the Library of Congress has a number of Lincoln treasures in their Rare Books and Collections. Luckily, we were friends with the keeper of the keys. On several occasions, the Surratt House has sponsored D.C. history tours that have included private showings of these items that are usually in storage. Unfortunately, the intense security around the Capitol, the Library, the Supreme Court, and other buildings on Capitol Hill since 9/11 have made trips to those buildings very difficult.

That said, one of the prizes of the collection is the set of necklace and two matching bracelets that Mrs. Lincoln wore to the First Inaugural. They are the famous seed pearls that are often referred to and were designed by Tiffany in New York. These links should show them up close: http://www.loc.gov/resource/lprbscsm.scsm1298/#seq-8. I wanted to reach out and grab them the first time I saw them. Back then, my knees might have let me get at least to the end of the hall...!

Not far from the famous Willard's Hotel used to be an equally famous jeweler by the name of Galt - the second Mrs. Woodrow Wilson was of that family. Years ago, Joan Chaconas and I went into the store just to look (because there was very little that our combined incomes could afford). The clerk was quite elderly and had been with the company for about fifty years. Somehow the subject of Lincoln came up, and he was delighted to know that we were interested in the President. He trundled to a back room and came back in a few minutes with old ledgers to show us the entries made to President Lincoln's account during his term.

The store closed within the past ten years, and I have often wondered where that ledger was sent...

[LincolnToddFan]

Oh wow...just hearing things like this makes me drool Laurie!

I hope, hope, HOPE those Lincoln ledgers wound up in the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, or some other reputable archivist!

Mary's necklace and bracelets are the last word...stunning!! Thanks for producing the clip. She really had exquisite taste.

[Eva Elisabeth]

The diamond heart necklace is nice, very youthful. Found these on a Smithsonian website:
Mary Lincoln’s gold lorgnette partially open:
   
Mary Lincoln’s enameled gold bracelet-watch, made by V. John Magnin & Guédin, Geneva:
   
Mary Lincoln wore this silk taffeta two-piece dress in 1861, with an evening bodice as the top piece. The pattern of black stripes and purple flowers is woven into the silk. Later in the 19th century, the original evening bodice was replaced with this daytime bodice made of fabric taken from the skirt:
   

[LincolnToddFan]

Oh my gosh...STUNNING! Look how tiny she was..I know that they had super strong corsets in those days but for a woman who had four children, she had a tiny waistline!

Thank you Eva E.!

[L Verge]

I believe the comments about Mary being plump may come more from people using modern standards. Mary was the proper figure for her time when the hour-glass figure was more appreciated. My grandmother was born in 1874, and by the time she began dating in the early-1890s, she was considered out-of-fashion. She was 5'10" and weighed 120 lbs and did not have to wear a corset. He older sister (born in 1872) was 5"3" and pleasing plump and had all the boyfriends.

One more mention about the Lincoln jewelry at Springfield. James Cornelius should have noted that the coral pair of earrings with screw-backs were retrofitted at some point after 1909. That's when the screw-back was invented. I have no idea what the provenance is on the set, but I would suspicion that they were passed down to Mary Harlan Lincoln and then grandchildren who skipped the piercing stage and wanted the "new" type of earring.

I have spent forty years convincing my female volunteers at Surratt House that they can only wear pierced earrings with their period outfits. No problem with ones younger than 65, but the old-timers just ain't giving up those screw-backs and clip-ons!

I inherited my great-grandmother's, which had been converted in the 1900s and promptly took them to a trusted jeweler to have them changed back to pierced backings.

[LincolnToddFan]

If your 5'10" 120lb grandmother had been born 100 later she could have been a supermodel!

[Eva Elisabeth]

Laurie, in order to be either en vogue today or extremely retro (like this totanic statuette) you should have turned the earrings into flesh tunnels:
   
I searched this site:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/lincoln/abraham-and-mary
... a little more and found more fascinating items you might like, too, but they are a litte scattered, so I post them here (hope that's ok - maybe you already know all these).

Mary Lincoln’s purple velvet skirt and daytime bodice are believed to have been made by African American dressmaker Elizabeth Keckly. The first lady wore the gown during the Washington winter social season in 1861–62. Both pieces are piped with white satin, and the bodice is trimmed with mother-of pearl buttons. An evening bodice was included with the ensemble. The lace collar is of the period, but not original to the dress. After Abraham Lincoln’s death, Mary went into mourning and remained in widow’s clothes until her own death in 1882. She gave some of her White House finery to family members. Her cousin, Elizabeth Todd Grimsley, received this purple velvet ensemble. In 1916 Grimsley’s son, John, sold the ensemble to Mrs. Julian James for the Smithsonian’s new First Ladies Collection.
John Grimsley attributed this dress to a “seamstress of exceptional ability” who “made nearly all of Mrs. Lincoln’s gowns.” Although he mistook her name as “Ann,” he most likely was referring to Elizabeth Keckly:
       
Mary Lincoln’s gold evening purse, 1863. Her name and the year were engraved inside the ring:
   
Here's also A. L.'s "last cup of coffee", Toia once told its story. Capt. D. W. Taylor presented this cup to Robert Todd Lincoln in 1887. He explained that a White House servant had seen the president leave the cup behind on a windowsill just before departing for the theater, and had preserved it as a relic of that tragic night.
   
Mourning Watch - Mary Lincoln used this black onyx lapel watch as her personal timepiece for the remainder of her life:
   
This gold scarf pin with an image of Abraham Lincoln was among Mary Lincoln’s possessions when she died:
   

[LincolnToddFan]

Thank you Eva E., for those amazing photos. Yes, that is indeed the coffee cup I posted about before. A.L. was sipping from it just before he left for Ford's and set it on a windowsill, where a servant found it the next morning.

I have the Smithsonian book of Civil War history. It has all those pictures and many more. Some of them break my heart. I wish I knew how to scan photos.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I took this photo of a plate from (of?) this set where you can see the entire pattern (love the eagle!). Below the plate there's also some info on the pattern.
   

[LincolnToddFan]

That must be the so called Soferino china, made in Limoges, France? It's very elegant, and as late as 1961 there were still a few pieces in the White House collection, but not enough for a State dinner and many pieces were broken and chipped as well.

Thanks for the great photos Eva!

[L Verge]

We sell reproduction pieces of the Lincoln china at Surratt House. It is very elegant even as reproductions. I believe that there is also a set of china dedicated to Mary Lincoln and with a floral design.

[Eva Elisabeth]

That must be the so called Soferino china, made in Limoges, France? It's very elegant, and as late as 1961 there were still a few pieces in the White House collection, but not enough for a State dinner and many pieces were broken and chipped as well.

Thanks for the great photos Eva!

Pleased you like them, Toia! The description below the plate reads:
"The Lincolns continued a WH practice of purchasing china for state dinners, but MTL was the first lady to make the purchase herself. Early in 1861, she selected a pattern made by Haviland & Co. of Paris, France, which became known as the "Royal Purple", and was decorated by E. V. Haughwoul, in New York city."
I really like it!

[LincolnToddFan]

Ahhh, that's right. "Soferino" is only a description of the color. I think it's lovely!