Who is this lady?

[Steve Whitlock]

(06-28-2021 04:48 AM)AussieMick Wrote:  This might assist those who are more technical than me...

"Impact of several wearers on the persistence of DNA on clothes-a study with experimental scenarios"

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29151121...s%20crime.

Thanks for the assistance! The article is dealing with touch or sweat dna, a problem when people handle their artifacts and corrupt the desired dna. I have no idea how long that stays with the relic, but the blood on the chair of Mary Todd Lincoln was there for 155 years, and still valid. Mtdna is a better choice because it maintains it's structure the best. I'm not positive off the top of my head, but I believe valid dna may have been taken from the Shroud of Turin, and that's back a ways.

When stories circulated that Jesse James wasn't in his grave, an exhumation was made to check dna. The dna from blood on Booth's clothing, I think, should still be testable. However, we're not talking the test you and I take for our dna, but FBI special testing, and a LOT more money.

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(06-28-2021 07:27 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Steve, do you happen to know if there is provenance prior to Charles K. Tuckerman? I am curious if it is known how he acquired the sheet. Many thanks for any possible input.

Roger,

I was just going by the write-up which accompanied a sheet piece with blood for auction. I'll attempt to find more for the provenance.

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(06-28-2021 07:27 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Steve, do you happen to know if there is provenance prior to Charles K. Tuckerman? I am curious if it is known how he acquired the sheet. Many thanks for any possible input.

Roger,

This link has more information, and a certificate for authenticity. https://www.oakauctions.com/fabric-swatc...t1418.aspx

It doesn't say how he acquired the sheet. I'll look for that information. It does appear that he just cut a piece off, and later made smaller pieces, so he may not have had the whole sheet. I do recall reading somewhere that the sheet stayed on the bed and the usual boarder slept on it. Perhaps, if not a fresh sheet, that boarder may have blood on it, for the unexpected result.

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(06-28-2021 07:27 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Steve, do you happen to know if there is provenance prior to Charles K. Tuckerman? I am curious if it is known how he acquired the sheet. Many thanks for any possible input.

Roger,

There appears to be no provenance beyond taking the word of Charles K. Tuckerman, and the statement of Mary A. Benjamin.

[LINCOLN, ABRAHAM.]
Linen fragment, 5/8 by 1 inch, excised from larger fragment collected by Charles K. Tuckerman from the death chamber of Abraham Lincoln, purportedly stained with Lincoln’s blood, together with color copy of Tuckerman’s original album sheet featuring the larger fragment and the inscription, “Relic from the death bed of Abraham Lincoln, stained with his blood. Taken from his death chamber / C.K.T.” and copy of letter of provenance of noted autograph dealer Mary A. Benjamin.

In Mary Benjamin’s 1961 letter to a representative of Norm Flayderman Antique Firearms, she explains that the original fragment came to her with the papers of Charles K. Tuckerman [1821-1896, the first American Minister to Greece] in an album of his letters, bearing his authentication in a note (a copy of which is present here), and claims that she has “no reason to question or doubt it in any way.”

I'm trying to find out whether anyone checked the sheet for a missing piece the size that Tuckerman took. Also, testing of the sheet swatch against another relic from the original sheet could help verify the provenance. Still looking.