"During the summer of 1842, after the couple had gone nearly eighteen months without personal contact, mutual friends conspired to bring Mary and Abraham back together."
Source: Doris Kearns Goodwin. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. page 101.

While researching in the Lincoln Home Furnishings report I came across this item given to Margaret Sinninger by Robert Todd Lincoln. James Hickey is footnoted verifying she was a good friend of Robert.

"Album given by Abraham Lincoln to Mary Todd. Shield on cover is engraved "A.L. to M.T." It has a brass clasp and is dated December 25, 1841. It is black leather, faded with age, and contains photographs taken during the Civil War of Abraham Lincoln, Mrs. Edwards, the Governors of many States, and many Generals of the Army."

Note that the year is 1841. Could Mary and Lincoln have been seeing each other earlier than the current thinking? I think given the chemistry between them and living nearby it's very possible they didn't keep apart for 18 months. They were both in Springfield Dec. 1841.

The report states the items given to her by Robert were offered to the Chicago Historical Society in 1937 and a copy of the items was listed in correspondence found in the Lincoln Home Files at Illinois State Historical Society Library.

Interesting find. Can anyone add to this?

Update-

I've been trying to track down the items from the Sinninger collection which in addition to the album include baby photos of Robert and Willie.( post #72 Is This Really Eddie Lincoln?).

I emailed Dr. James Cornelius on Sat. and was excited by his reply today.

On 7/30/2013 2:41 PM, Cornelius, James wrote:
>
>" Hello – Thanks for writing; we’re swamped in mid-summer, but I will get to this interesting matter soon. Sincerely, James"

I will post here when he gets back to me.

Anita, did he ever get back to you? I am very curious about this. If Mary and Abraham were back together at Christmas 1841 it would mean a lot of books are wrong.

(02-01-2014 05:58 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Anita, did he ever get back to you? I am very curious about this. If Mary and Abraham were back together at Christmas 1841 it would mean a lot of books are wrong.

Sorry Roger, I forgot to post the upshot of research on this. James did get back to me.

It's a bit of a mystery. The Lincoln Home Furnishings report clearly mentions this item as being offered to the Chicago Historical Society and that Mrs. Sinninger was a good friend of Robert Lincoln. However a search of the collections at the Lincoln Library turned up none of the items Mrs. Sinninger identified.

Additionally I contacted Laine Dunham at Hildene and neither she nor James could find a connection between Mrs. Sinninger or Robert Lincoln. And yet the Lincoln Home Furnishings report states that in an interview with James Hickey, Curator of Lincoln Artifacts March 12, 1979 he said "Margaret Sinninger was a very good friend of Robert Lincoln."

Finally James asked the key question. "... The date ‘1841’ on a gifted photo album from AL to MT is very suspicious, I must say – were there photo albums at that early date?"

Here's my reply- "You make a good point about the date on the album. They didn't have daguerreotype studios in Springfield in 1841 much less albums, and dags were in cases, not albums."

I am still researching this. Anita

Many thanks for the update, Anita! I think I have read there were no daguerreians in Springfield in 1841 but several (including Nicholas Shepherd) by 1846.

MYSTERY SOLVED! Turns out Mrs. Margaret O'Herron Sinninger was a scammer! She didn't become Mrs. Sinninger until 1914 when she married George Sinninger in Springfield. Hickey's comments in the Lincoln Home Furnishings report stating that she was a good friend of Robert Lincoln really threw a curve ball in tracking her down.

I recently contacted Gwen Thompson, Director of Mary Todd Lincoln House. She solved the mystery. Here's what Gwen found.

"It seems pretty clear that Mrs. Sinninger was a fake. In many reports she goes by Miss O'Herron, her maiden name. "

"Mystery solved. Just sent you a bunch of links about Margaret being a fake. Hickey didn't know any more than us. He wasn't alive then. He was just repeating the story. (Although he got it wrong. Margaret claimed Lincoln was a friend of her fathers.)"

https://archive.org/details/lincolnsgettysbulinc_20

https://archive.org/stream/curiosrelicsf...6_djvu.txt

http://www.mywebtimes.com/life/cradle-co...53c54.html

http://www.mywebtimes.com/life/the-strea...l?mode=jqm

Makes for an interesting story as well as a good lesson on sources. Hickey was curator of a major Lincoln collection as well as a respected Lincoln historian, yet he put his stamp of approval on Mrs. Sinninger's claims and even got that wrong by stating that she was a good friend of Robert Lincoln's.

I searched for connections with Robert Lincoln and had Mrs. Sinninger in the wrong time period. Because of Hickey's validation of the objects in the Lincoln Home Furnishings Report, I assumed they existed and were credible. Mr. Hickey was a great man in the Lincoln world and I very much appreciate his contribution to Lincoln Studies. No one is perfect . Margaret Sinninger was a scammer of the first order.

What I learned from all this is that "assumption is the mother of all screw-ups!"

I'm a little confused...is Ms. Sinninger a fake or is the album a fake..or both?

What about the engraving on the front?

Toia, Mrs. Margaret O'Herron Sinninger's claims of a connection to the Lincoln family are made up. She is real and a scammer. The artifacts she claimed came from the Lincoln family, including those listed in the Home Furnishings Report are bogus. They didn't have photo albums in 1841. She could have had an old photo album and inscribed it herself. It was not beyond her.

If you read the links above, she also claimed to have an original copy of the Gettysburg address!

I wonder if Mrs. Sinninger knew Wilma Minor.

(08-12-2014 11:41 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  I wonder if Mrs. Sinninger knew Wilma Minor.

Was Wilma Minor's maiden name O'Herron?

Anita, that is too funny!

(08-12-2014 11:31 AM)Anita Wrote:  Toia, Mrs. Margaret O'Herron Sinninger's claims of a connection to the Lincoln family are made up. She is real and a scammer. The artifacts she claimed came from the Lincoln family, including those listed in the Home Furnishings Report are bogus. They didn't have photo albums in 1841. She could have had an old photo album and inscribed it herself. It was not beyond her.

If you read the links above, she also claimed to have an original copy of the Gettysburg address!

Thanks Anita,

What is it about the AL story that attracts so many crooks, frauds, and con artists??