Lincoln Home

[Rob Wick]

Quote:Do you know of any sites where I may find the speech that Carl Sbadburg made so i can read what he said?

Follow this link, Ashley.

Best
Rob

[Ashley Norman]

(11-18-2012 10:56 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  

Quote:Do you know of any sites where I may find the speech that Carl Sbadburg made so i can read what he said?

Follow this link, Ashley.

Best
Rob

Thank you for the site.
much appreciated to read more to help futher my knowledge of this.

---

(11-18-2012 10:47 PM)Craig Hipkins Wrote:  

(11-18-2012 12:29 AM)Ashley Norman Wrote:  Oh ok. Thank you for telling me.
I didnt know his Home was a National Historic Site.

My Avitar is Olivia De Haviland she is in Gone With the wind , Hush, Hush sweet Charlotte, and Roning Hood.
She Is one of my Favorite Actresses.

I think Olivia De Haviland's best performance was in "The Heiress." One of my favorite old black and white movies from the 1940s. It's amazing that she is still going strong up in her 90s!

Craig

I agree she did a fantastic job in that move. I just love how she can adjust to her roles in any form or fashion.

[GARY POPOLO]

(11-18-2012 08:02 PM)L Verge Wrote:  You are way ahead of the game by at least showing an interest. I have loved history all my life because I had a mother and grandmother who loved it and made every effort to take me to historical sites, buy me historical materials, etc.

One of my staff members at Surratt House, and a close friend for forty years, never enjoyed history as a child or young adult. When she got the bug, however, it was non-stop. She is a recognized authority on the Lincoln assassination and on the history of Washington, D.C.

I could count in the thousands the amount of visitors to Surratt House that I have heard tell me or our guides that they "never liked history in school." We've got to do our darnedest to change that!

Please forgive me as you know I am new to this forum group. Reading your remarks I take it that you run the Surratt House? That must be so exciting!! The best Job you can have is one you love doing! And I am sure you Love your (job) Thank you Gary

[Laurie Verge]

I'm not sure whether I run the Surratt House, Gary, or if it runs me! I am, however, one of the lucky people who turned their avocation into a vocation. I started as a volunteer guide at the museum in 1975. Not sure whether I have worked my way up the ladder or down the ladder, but I became the first full-time director of the site in 1983.

One of the best parts of my life ever since is meeting and interacting with so many remarkable and learned folks who share my passion for history. I never stop learning from them. Unfortunately, I have met some pseudo-historians, "takers & users," and downright strange people along the way; but the good heavily outweigh the bad.

[Donna McCreary]

I am looking for information about the condition of the Lincoln Home when Abraham purchased it. Someone asked me if Mary cooked on an open hearth. I know Mary purchased a stove during the renovations of the home, but I do not know there was a cooking stove in the home when they first moved in. I always assumed she cooked on a hearth, but am not sure.

[Gene C]

Did she even know how to cook when they got married?

[Eva Elisabeth]

(04-28-2014 04:24 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Did she even know how to cook when they got married?

Gene, I doubt it. In “Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography” (p. 111), Jean H. Baker writes:

"Having grown up without any practical experience in cooking...in any case, she learned to do what the slaves had done in Lexington: roast coffee, make calf's foot jelly, preserve fruit, and prepare cheese...By 1851, after nearly ten years of housekeeping, Mary Lincoln had progressed to an advanced version of Miss Leslie’s Cookery… there were recipes for everything from family soup to invalid cookery of beef tea and blackberry preserve...Because she had not learned the vices of sugar and, like everyone in Springfield, innocently believed it the “most nourishing substance in nature,” she spent hours making puddings, cakes, candies, and cookies."

And while washing the dishes, she once (according to Harriet Hanks Chapman to J.W. Weik) remarked: "What would my poor father say if he found me doing this kind of work."

---

(04-28-2014 04:17 PM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  I am looking for information about the condition of the Lincoln Home when Abraham purchased it. Someone asked me if Mary cooked on an open hearth. I know Mary purchased a stove during the renovations of the home, but I do not know there was a cooking stove in the home when they first moved in. I always assumed she cooked on a hearth, but am not sure.

Donna, obviously there's not much known about that.

This is from D. Donald's "Lincoln" (p.96):
"The downstairs rooms were heated by fireplaces and there were wood-burning stoves in the upstairs bedrooms. Of course, there was no gas or electric light. Water came from a cistern and a well in the backyard. A latrine offered the only sanitary facilities. Despite its limitations, it was a sturdy, well-built house, and the Lincolns thought it was worth every penny of what it cost."

In the respective "sources and notes", he recommends "Historic Furnishing Reports: The Lincoln Home" by Katherine B. Menz (1983), which is here:
http://archive.org/stream/historicfurnis...z_djvu.txt

Wow, listed there is also the following: "Carving set , including knife, fork, and sharpener, marked J. A. Henckel's Twin Works, Solingen, Germany." That ennobles most of my steely kitchen equipment.

[Donna McCreary]

After a conversation with the curator at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, I have an answer to this question. When the Lincolns first purchased the house, the kitchen had a large open hearth fireplace for cooking.
We do not know when the Lincolns purchased their first cooking stove. It may have been during the 1846 renovations of the home. They added a bedroom and pantry, and the kitchen was moved. Perhaps the first stove was purchased in 1849 when stoves were added to the parlors. There is no documentation showing the purchase of the first cooking stove. There is documentation for the purchase of the second stove in June 1860. This is the stove that is still in the Lincoln Home.
Gene – of course Mary knew how to cook! As a girl in Lexington, she received a “proper English education in all of its branches.” This included instructions for cooking. One of my favorite courting stories about Abraham and Mary is the tale of her offering Lincoln a piece of cake and saying: “I am sorry this cake is not as light as usual. I baked it on a Friday, and I suppose that is why it is so sad.” (Not an exact quote, but close enough). They then fell into a charming, poetic conversation about the fates, the furies, and the fairies.

[RJNorton]

Eva and Donna, you both sure did better than I did on this one. I tried numerous sources that I thought might have information and got nowhere.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Donna, since you mention the stove again, I find the following quite interesting. On the link there's written:

"A photocopy of an article (found in LIHO Accession File No. 1), which appeared in Wisconsin Magazine , January-February 1924, pictures an elaborate wood burning stove , patented in 1849, which, according to the Fuller-Werner Co., was used by Lincoln in his Springfield home. The Fuller-Werner Co. acquired the stove through Mr. Jones, who purchased it in 1873 in Springfield. This provenance is, however, not conclusive because of the twelve-year gap between the time the Lincolns sold their belongings and Mr. Jones' purchase of the stove. This stove is, however, very similar to the one shown in the Leslie's Illustrated drawing of the Lincolns' front parlor (on March 9, 1861). [Should be this:]
   
The Royal Oak cook stove now in the Lincoln Home Kitchen (LIHO 559), thought to have once been Mrs. Lincoln's, came back to the Home with several other items from the Oldroyd Collection. It has a well -documented history. The stove's provenance is described in the 1896 Descriptive Catalogue of the Oldroyd Collection by Charles Coe. He wrote:

Stove, cook; 'Royal Oak,' no. 9, manufactured by Jewett and Root, Buffalo, N.Y., 1855. This stove - an old-fashioned woodburner, with four lids, and a wide hearth, - was in use by the family previous to their departure for Washington. It is still in good serviceable condition. An accompanying affidavit made by the son of E. Kreigh, stove dealer Springfield, states that an entry in his father's books shows that Mr. Lincoln purchased the stove on the 9th of June, I860." An accompanying affidavit made by the son of E. Kreigh, stove dealer, Springfield, states that an entry in his father's books shows that Mr. Lincoln purchased the stove on the 9th of June, I860. The original affidavit appears to be missing; however, the stove is identifiable by a stamped manufacturer's mark, and the suggested history is plausible. Kreigh was a Springfield stove merchant and two checks for very small sums written by Mr. Lincoln to Springfield stove merchants, P. A. Dorwin & Co. (February 16, 1859) and D.J. Boynton (September 7, 1859) might indicate that his old stove was having repairs or worn parts replaced.'

---

This site is similar to the one on the link above, but more readable, and there are many links to illustrations:
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_boo...iond-b.htm
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_boo...o/hfrt.htm

[RJNorton]

What or what not is a whatnot?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Good question, Roger. I was wondering the same. Wiki says:
"A what-not is a piece of furniture derived from the French étagère, which was exceedingly popular in England in the first three-quarters of the 19th century. It usually consists of slender uprights or pillars, supporting a series of shelves for holding china, ornaments, trifles, or what not, hence the allusive name. In its English form, although a convenient piece of drawing room furniture, it was rarely beautiful. The early mahogany examples are, however, sometimes graceful in their simplicity."

(I love the wording of the last two sentences. Very polite way to express an inconvenient opinion.)

On the "furniture site" is written:
"Two whatnots are visible in the 1861 Leslie's drawings of the Parlor. The one in the northwest corner of the parlor may be a triangular shaped corner whatnot, although its shape is not clear from the drawings. One mid-nineteenth-century wall whatnot (now found in the Lincoln Home), a corner one in the Chicago Historical Society, and a whatnot owned by the Melvin family have a history of Lincoln ownership."

One of Leslie's drawings of the Parlor is above, this is one other I found:
   
I think the whatnot is the shelf in the front on the right, and northwest corner refers to the viewpoint of standing in front of the house.

[L Verge]

Eva is exactly right about whatnots and the one in the parlor drawing. The latter appears to be almost identical to the one in the parlor at Surratt House. Such shelves were used to display photographs, souvenirs (sea shells were especially popular), pretty vases, etc. They were very convenient for chimney corners or even between windows. The one at Surratt House (original to the period, but not to the Surratts) is really quite pretty with nice turnings, bead work, and hidden drawers under several shelves.

Historybuff has a virtual tour of Surratt House that includes a shot of the etagere.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I was curious why it was called "whatnot" in English. The etymology dictionary says:

"whatnot (n.)
also what-not, 1530s, "anything," Elliptical for "what may I not say," implying "everything else." As the name of a furniture item, first attested 1808, so named for the objects it is meant to hold."

How do you call whatnots nowadays then? Or are they not a common piece of furniture anymore? In German, the French original "Étagère" is commonly used for this:
   
The piece of furniture is called "Stellage", but sometimes "Étagère" as well.

[Donna McCreary]

In my area of the country, a "what-not" is a decorative piece that sits on a table or shelf. A what-shelf is a piece of furniture, often with tired shelving, that displays what-nots. My what-nots include fancy picture frames, little china animals, china shoes, paper weights, and other items made of china or glass.
I also must add that I do have an entire shelving unit dedicated to my Lincoln what-nots.