I have to agree, Jim. She lost her "status" as wife and mother with the loss of her husband and Tad. Robert was also her son - but I feel that they were never close.

Everything I've read on RTL seems to indicate that he and his mother had a strained relationship. It seems when he went away to school was the time when their relationship changed. RTL became more independent.

I found this photo of Tad I've never seen before.

http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/pa...temId=1244

It is now part of the Lincoln Images collection
http://www.lincolnimages.com/

Quote:I found this photo of Tad I've never seen before.

Great work, Gene. I do believe that this may be Tad. Certainly looks like him!

Gene's post made me think of another Tad Lincoln photo not often seen in books. Back in 2005 Rick Gumpert sent me a photo of Tad posing with Rick's great grandfather, Gustav E. Gumpert. Gus was a friend of Tad's who lived in Philadelphia. There is a nice article about Gus Gumpert here. I think Rick was thinking I would add the photo to my website, but I totally forgot I even had it until recently. Rick told me that Carl Sandburg had once contacted his mother about the family's photograph of Tad and Gus plus other information about the Tad Lincoln-Gus Gumpert friendship. Here is the image Rick Gumpert sent me:

Tad certainly doesn't look too happy about having this photo taken with his friend. How many times have we seen that same look on our children's faces when we are forcing them to sit down and behave?

What great pictures. Wes Cowan is pretty good about being careful on identifications of previous unknown or little know images. It does indeed look like Tad.

Has anyone on the Forum ever seen the photo that Gene posted? I haven't. It certainly has to be Tad. Wow, what a find.

Bill, it sure was new to me. I believe the gentleman with Tad is Thomas W. Sweney, assessor of Internal Revenue in Philadelphia. Gus Gumpert was also a Philadelphia friend of Tad's. Both gentlemen are mentioned on p. 171 of The Mary Lincoln Enigma.

(08-09-2013 03:36 PM)LincolnMan Wrote:  Has anyone on the Forum ever seen the photo that Gene posted? I haven't. It certainly has to be Tad. Wow, what a find.

Never seen it. Great to see new discovery

(08-08-2013 02:13 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Gene's post made me think of another Tad Lincoln photo not often seen in books. Back in 2005 Rick Gumpert sent me a photo of Tad posing with Rick's great grandfather, Gustav E. Gumpert. Gus was a friend of Tad's who lived in Philadelphia. There is a nice article about Gus Gumpert here. I think Rick was thinking I would add the photo to my website, but I totally forgot I even had it until recently. Rick told me that Carl Sandburg had once contacted his mother about the family's photograph of Tad and Gus plus other information about the Tad Lincoln-Gus Gumpert friendship. Here is the image Rick Gumpert sent me:

In reading the article, Tad is described as a "tag-about-boy." What does that mean? My how our language has changed!

I think the term means that Tad would look for every opportunity to tag along with people to keep active. I see him as a fun-loving kid with few chores to keep him occupied and lots of things around him to keep him interested.

Roger - Thanks for reminding me where I had recently read about Sweeney and Gumpert. I knew those names were ones I had run across recently, but could not remember where.

So is Jim Page a tag-about-big-boy?