Mary Lincoln's engraved opera glasses?

[Linda Anderson]

An article titled "Laura Keene at the Lincoln Assassination" by Billy J. Harbin is available for free with registration from JSTOR. Harbin writes about the many different witness accounts and he concludes that whether or not we believe Keene was in the box holding Lincoln's head in her lap (as Dr. Leale said she did) or was not there at all (as Clara Harris said) depends on which eyewitnesses we believe.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3205119?sea...ca1c5e5758

The article lists Lincoln's Final Hours by Kathy Canavan as a citation which in turn cites Kent's April 15, 1865 letter to his mother. The source is "Lincoln Assassination Eyewitness Accounts, N.P.S.files."

Dave, it's possible that if Kent did indeed take the opera glasses that he never spoke publicly about them because he didn't want anyone to know, even years later, that he had stolen the bereaved First Lady's opera glasses and never returned them to her.

He may have only mentioned the knife because it belonged to him and the opera glasses belonged to Mary Lincoln.