The “rubber box” or did Laura Keene indeed held Lincoln’s head?

[loetar44]

(09-10-2014 07:08 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Kees, what I was referring to as laughable were the claims from so many people that they had been present in the presidential box as Lincoln lay dying on the floor. I was not making a disparaging remark solely about Laura Keene. However, I do question the validity of her claim to have made it to the point of holding the President's head in her lap. My instinct (and that is all it is) is that she was probably in the hallway looking in - not actively participating, which would have impeded the doctors' efforts.

I agree Laurie that there were so many claims from so many that they were present in the state box, or present at AL’s death bed, or helped carrying him to the Petersen house. You can laugh about that, but it is in human nature to stretch the truth. So many people do so. Mostly it is not more than an exaggeration, they don’t mean to lie, getting away with it because their audience (the public) is willing to believe the story and take no time to check the facts. I think only for historians there is a line between exaggeration and the truth. Laura Keene herself did never make a statement and she never exaggerated her role, others did. So, I think the story did not really gnawed at her, and I think did not make her feel uncomfortable down to her bones. However, when the story was out it was for her tough to keep a moral compass. For me it makes her not dishonest or untrustworthy, only human.

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(09-10-2014 07:04 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Wow, you can borrow such books at the libraries in NL??? The ISBN # is: 978-1-62157-083-7.
This is the book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1621570835...mp_s_a_1_1
...and there's also a thread on this one:
http://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussio...1338.html?

not the public library. but the Rotterdam University Library. Thanks Eva for the ISBN!

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(09-11-2014 07:16 AM)Jim Garrett Wrote:  Hi Roger: I do feel that Gourlay was more credible than Ferguson. There was a back staircase, somewhere on the downhill side of the theatre. I think that the fact that Gourlay did not leave a statement actually may work for him.

I can't imagine in all the chaos in the theatre, that Ferguson would have been successful in getting Keene to the Presidential box in any feasible amount of time. I haven't read Ferguson's book for a couple of years, but I think there were some statements inconsistent with most other statements. Ferguson wrote the book roughly 65 years after the event and I'm sure a few of his memories changed over that time.

IMO: it all comes down to deciding “which eyewitnesses… you believe”.

No direct statement from Laura Keene has ever been found.

Clara Harris vehemently denied that Laura Keene was ever at any time in the state box.

A statement by Dr. Leale confirmed that Laura Keene was there and that he gave her permission to hold the president’s head in her lap.

Jeannie Gourlay made the statement that her father escorted Laura Keene to the state box and later wrote that Laura Keene raised Lincoln’s head and “…found blood trickling down her dress.”

The statements were actually made many years later Dr. Charles Leale (44 years), Jeannie Gourlay (58 years) and like you said Jim: William Ferguson 65 years.

Jim, I also hardly believe that Gourlay was successful in getting Laura there. To get to the state box, Keene and Gourlay would have had to exit the theatre from the stage, climb an outside staircase, enter a lounge adjacent to the dress circle, and then traverse the side of the dress circle to get in the box.