Lincoln artifacts at new America 250 exhibit at Reagan Library

[Steve]

(06-04-2026 10:23 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  Additionally the President was carrying more papers than the Library of Congress states. These papers fell out into the street as the men were carrying Lincoln across the street to the Petersen House. The papers were turned over to Edwin Stanton; nobody knows their location today.

Roger, do you, or does anyone else for that matter, know if anyone has identified the dates and publications of the clippings that were found in Lincoln's pockets?

Reck's book mentions the theory of Dr. Oliver Orr of the Library of Congress; Orr believed the Hanscom dispatch and the other papers (if there are any) were cycled through different hands after they were retrieved and are now mixed in with thousands of other papers in the Library's collection.

From what I have been able to ascertain -- the papers came out of Lincoln's pockets in the theater. Likely in the box when they were cutting away Lincoln's Great Coat and Frock Coat looking for the wound. The papers were given to Capt. Edwin Bedee of New Hampshire, who was among the group who went with Lincoln from the theater to Petersen House (Bedee may or may not have been helping to carry the President). Eventually Bedee gave the papers to Stanton at Petersen House (Bedee's later account suggested there were instructions given to him by Stanton to find and deliver the papers to Hay but that failed and Bedee ended up giving them to Stanton anyway.) Stanton then put them in the War Department safe where they remained until April 18th. Correspondence from the Hay papers suggest they were sent to the White House on the 18th, but that correspondence is from 1887, two decades later --- with Hay himself apparently not remembering what happened to the papers.