Mary's Move from the White House

[Donna McCreary]

As I am filing things today from my last research trip, I ran across a letter from Mary Putnam to her sons. It is full of 'gossip' about Mary Lincoln at the time of her death. Mrs. Putman had spoken to one of the women who sat with Mary's remains the night before the funeral. She states: "She had 68 trunks full of clothes & yet nothing fit to bury her in so they Telegraphed to Chicago & got white silk to lay her out in."

It seems that the number of trunks at the time of Mary's death and the number of those removed from the White House are similar. This seems odd. One would think that 17 years of shopping and collecting would result in a much larger number of trunks.

I will continue to search for information from Benjamin French.