The Bloody Pillow Case

[Dave Taylor]

Anita,

I can explain. First off, the picture in the exhibit catalog is of the other side of the pillow. That particular image was taken by a Ford's Theatre employee and then used by the Reagan people in the catalog. Reagan is displaying the other side of the pillow where the blood stains are more visible.

The black marks you see are not period. Rather they are ink stains that occurred sometime afterward. Whether the stains occurred when the artifact was displayed early on, or are due to some mishap during storage, I don't know. Ford's is aware of the damage, however, and could possibly relate how/when the ink stains occurred.

I hope this helps.

[Anita]

Anita,

I can explain. First off, the picture in the exhibit catalog is of the other side of the pillow. That particular image was taken by a Ford's Theatre employee and then used by the Reagan people in the catalog. Reagan is displaying the other side of the pillow where the blood stains are more visible.

The black marks you see are not period. Rather they are ink stains that occurred sometime afterward. Whether the stains occurred when the artifact was displayed early on, or are due to some mishap during storage, I don't know. Ford's is aware of the damage, however, and could possibly relate how/when the ink stains occurred.

I hope this helps.

Thanks Dave. That explains the mystery.

[Jim Garrett]

I don't think rubber sole shoes existed in 1865. AL had on his custom made Moroccan goat skin boots.

[BettyO]

Agreed, Jim! Boots (and ladies' slippers/boots/shoes) all had leather soles. Vulcanized rubber (gutta percha) was available for buttons on clothing, combs, brushes, even jewelry, etc. but not for shoe leather....

[Anita]

If you go on http://www.chicagohistory.org/wetwithblo.../comb3.htm you can see a photo of Lincoln's waterproof overshoes described as an India-rubber shoe from Goodyear.

Goodyear seal on overshoes attributed to Abraham Lincoln (CHS 1920.683).
Lincoln's waterproof overshoes, which his wife gave to Elizabeth Keckly, were one of Goodyear's first commercially successful products.

I'm constantly amazed at how one subject leads to another to build a knowledge base. What fun I'm having on this forum!

[BettyO]

Fascinating, Anita!

Thanks for the link. I had never heard of vulcanized rubber overshoes. I knew about the rubberized blankets/ponchos which Union soldiers occasionally issued.

Lew Powell had supposedly gutta percha (vulcanized rubber) buttons on his frock coat when captured. The comb also found on his person was described as gutta percha as well.

I have to agree. This forum is a great knowledge base!

[Eva Elisabeth]

Somehow I oversaw these rubber boots - if these were the ones A. Lincoln ordered Bud Taft to buy (and the storekeeper commented: "I think your father must have the largest feet in Washington")? I've always wondered what those boots might have looked like! So they were (most likely) overshoes, or galoshes, not "real" boots!

[Warren]

I found in many of my journeys an old scrap book that had, among other things, about 6 large pages of newspaper clippings dealing with Lincoln, the assassination, Booth's last days and death, and the imposter. These clippings appear to be from the early 1880's to late 1890's. I know most of you would have seen these items over the years, but I put them here for whatever they may be worth. The following deals with the relics in the Peterson House as related by Mrs. Rector, Peterson's daughter. I'd like your opinion as to whether this story is correct or not.

[undefined=undefined]



I'm sorry they are not in such good order; I'm still trying to learn Imageshack The only thing cut off in the pictures is the a few sentences at the end where she says of Booth's laundry memorandum that, "it perhaps had been there for months, but I suppose some of Mr. Stanton's detectives had found it at the time! We might all have been hanged with Mrs. Surratt. I tremble yet when I think of it." Chicago Herald.

[BettyO]

Facinating news clippings, Warren! What is the date of the clippings and from what newspaper. Unfortunately the images are too small to read. Most of us here now simply just insert the images because I think that Image Shack has gone to $$$.....

[L Verge]

Fascinating, Anita!

Thanks for the link. I had never heard of vulcanized rubber overshoes. I knew about the rubberized blankets/ponchos which Union soldiers occasionally issued.

Lew Powell had supposedly gutta percha (vulcanized rubber) buttons on his frock coat when captured. The comb also found on his person was described as gutta percha as well.

I have to agree. This forum is a great knowledge base!

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but gutta percha is not the same thing as vulcanized rubber. The former comes from a tree in Southeast Asia and was preferred because it was not as brittle as rubber (which comes from the sap of a rubber tree) until Goodyear and an Englishman vied for the patents on vulcanization of rubber. Gutta percha could be shaped into decorative items.

Typical examples of gutta percha are pieces of jewelry (especially mourning jewelry because of its black color and because it resembled the more expensive jet used by the upper classes), buttons, pistol grips, canes, walking sticks, photograph cases, and even golf balls. Because it is an inert substance, it also does not react with the human body and has been used in dentistry tools as well as plugging teeth.

Gutta percha became scarce because it was an excellent insulation for telegraph wires, including the transatlantic cable.

[Warren]

Hi- Betty. Did you click on the images? When I do, they take me to Imageshack and I click download, and they enlarge enough to be read. There are about 6 large pages of clippings like this. Unfortunately, whoever did the scrapbook tended to cut off the dates, but the dates that are in there are from 1881 to 1898. The pages are very brittle and are crumbling. This particular story had a Chicago Herald byline; no date. Others are from Houston papers.

If you still can't read them, I'll try direct upload, but I had trouble with that yesterday.

[L Verge]

I've been on sick leave for two days, but I was able to enlarge the pages enough to make out some of it. When I get back to work, I'm hoping that my computer at work can do a better job than my laptop at home.

Kathy Canavan is our resident Petersen expert on this forum, so she might have more particulars on this set of articles. I would love to read them intact.

[Anita]

Warren, THANK YOU for the great articles. EUREKA!!!

When I saw the pillow at the Reagan library I became curious about the black marks. I found an article where Charles Rector was quoted saying the black marks could have come from Lincoln's overshoes. I did research and found that Lincoln did indeed wear overshoes made of India-rubber. I posted this on this thread with a link.
http://www.chicagohistory.org/wetwithblo.../comb3.htm


BUT UNTIL YOUR ARTICLE I couldn't find proof that Lincoln wore overshoes the night he was shot and in fact had them on at the Petersen house. And now here is Mrs.Rector saying "When Mr. Lincoln was carried to the house he had on a pair of rubbers. They were taken off by my brother and among other things were stored away. I had them for several years wrapped up with this pillow. You see the marks on the rubbers where the heat has melted them. Well Secretary Belknap of the War Department on day heard that the Petersen family had never been recompensed one cent for the trouble they had been caused and that the Lincoln family had never thanked a single member of it and he sent over for that pair of rubbers. He kept the rubbers and sent me a check for $55 and they are now in the museum in the old Ford Theater building."



I had written to Allison Dixon at Ford's theater about the black marks on the pillow. Here's her reply. On 8/26/2013 9:48 AM, Dixon, Allison wrote:
> Hello Anita,
>
> Thank you for your email. We are excited that you had the opportunity to see the pillow on exhibit at the Reagan Presidential Library, as that particular pillow is not on permanent exhibit in Ford's Theater due to its fragile condition. We have another pillow on exhibit in our museum.
>
> You are correct, the image we provided the Reagan Library for their catalog was of the reverse side of the pillow. They chose to exhibit the other side for the purposes of their exhibition.
>
> The pillow is not from the Oldroyd collection. It was donated to the NPS in 1955 by Miss Marjorie F. Webster. The pillow was first owned by the Petersen's daughter, Pauline, and was passed down through the family over several generations to Miss Webster.
>
> The black marks on the pillow were there when we acquired the pillow in 1955. Like several other artifacts, the pillow was examined by the FBI laboratory, and is said to be some sort of resin, although they could not determine the exact cause.
>
> I hope this answers some of your questions! I am glad you enjoyed your visit to the Reagan Presidential Library. They were a pleasure to work with. We hope to see you at Ford's Theater some time!
>
> Best,
>
>
> Allison Dixon
> Museum Technician
> National Mall and Memorial Parks
> Ford's Theatre National Historic Site


I truly believe that the black marks on the pillow came from Lincoln's overshoes thanks to your article.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Hi Anita, the link doesn't work for me, is it the same one as in your post #20? (That one does work.)

Re: "When Mr. Lincoln was carried to the house he had on a pair of rubbers", what I don't understand - why would Lincoln,

1. leaving the White House in a hurry as the play had already begun, have spent time on putting on overshoes?
2. being dropped off the carriage directly at the theater entrance with little or no way to walk through mud, have decided to wear overshoes at all - at a theater visit?? (And what about the ladies?)
3. not put off the overshoes at the theater? And I can hardly imagine before the shot Lincoln was carried to Peterson House, the docs had (ordered to) put his overshoes on again...
4. have reached the pillow with his feet?

PS: I would love to read the articles, Warren, but have no idea how it works to download them.

[RJNorton]

Hi Eva. Here is the way it works on my computer (using Internet Explorer 11):

1. Click on an image in Warren's post.
2. You will be taken to another page - when there click on "Download Image."
3. A message appears that says something like - "Do you want to open or save k2vnLV.jpg (172kb) from imagizer.imageshack.com?
4. Click on Open

At least on my computer the article then appears in readable form. Also, Anita's link is now working.