Christmas with the Lincoln family in Springfield

[L Verge]

I doubt that the corset material and the purple muslin were gifts unless Mary was giving them to another woman. However, one could never have enough handkerchiefs -- up until the invention of Kleenex! My grandmother had one whole drawer full of them and refused to use tissues until the day she died in 1965. My mother, and later I, spent a lot of time washing and ironing her handkerchiefs...

Most of the handkerchiefs listed here were probably for the men in the family, but women almost seemed to have contests as to how decorative their hankies could be. I have also seen some men's handkerchiefs that were as large or larger than dinner napkins.