Content of Lincoln's pockets

[Jim Garrett]

Back this past winter, I was priveledge to have a orivate viewing of the contents of AL's pockets from the night of the assassination. I was with David Fleishman, who is probably the world's leading authority on eyeglasses. The contents are well published, but here is the interesting thing to me.........

In the mid 1930's, Mrs. Charles Isham (RTL's daughter) sent over a box wrapped in brown paper to the librarian of congress with a note simply stating that the package contained the contents of AL's pockets. At the time, Mrs. Isham was living in the RTL hous on N St. N.W. The amazing thing is that the Librarian of Congress didn't open it. He simply put it in storage. The package sat in storage until Daniel Boorstin, Librarian of Congress in the 1970's and 80's re-discovered it. The darn thing sat in the Library of Congress for over 30 years without anyone bothering to unwrap the package and open the box to see what was inside.

So please share your most interesting "relic" story.