Possible Lincoln artifact discovered!

[Eva Elisabeth]

(07-04-2016 08:55 AM)Tadsecrete Wrote:  Does there exist an inventory of items that Mary took FROM the White House after the assassination? I know that she gave some items away to Ms. Keckley, etc.

Most likely you will know this, too, and find it not helpful either. However, from Elizabeth Keckley's "Behind the Scenes", pp.203-208:

"In packing, Mrs. Lincoln gave away everything intimately connected with the President, as she said that she could not bear to be reminded of the past. The articles were given to those who were regarded as the warmest of Mr. Lincoln's admirers. All of the presents passed through my hands. The dress that Mrs. Lincoln wore on the night of the assassination was given to Mrs. Slade, the wife of an old and faithful messenger. The cloak, stained with the President's blood, was given to me, as also was the bonnet worn on the same memorable night. Afterwards I received the comb and brush that Mr. Lincoln used during his residence at the White House....As may well be imagined, I was only too glad to accept this comb and brush from the hands of Mrs. Lincoln. The cloak, bonnet, comb, and brush, the glove worn at the first reception after the second inaugural, and Mr. Lincoln's over-shoes, also given to me, I have since donated for the benefit of Wilberforce University, a colored college near Xenia, Ohio, destroyed by fire on the night that the President was murdered.

There was much surmise, when Mrs. Lincoln left the White House, what her fifty or sixty boxes, not to count her score of trunks, could contain. Had the government not been so liberal in furnishing the boxes, it is possible that there would have been less demand for so much transportation. The boxes were loosely packed, and many of them with articles not worth carrying away. Mrs. Lincoln had a passion for hoarding old things, believing, with Toodles, that they were 'handy to have about the house.'

The bonnets that she brought with her from Springfield, in addition to every one purchased during her residence in Washington, were packed in the boxes, and transported to Chicago. She remarked that she might find use for the material some day, and it was prudent to look to the future. I am sorry to say that Mrs. Lincoln's foresight in regard to the future was only confined to cast-off clothing, as she owed, at the time of the President's death, different store bills amounting to seventy thousand dollars....

The children, as well as herself, had received a vast number of presents during Mr. Lincoln's administration, and these presents constituted a large item in the contents of the boxes. The only article of furniture, so far as I know, taken away from the White House by Mrs. Lincoln, was a little dressing-stand used by the President. I recollect hearing him say one day:

'Mother, this little stand is so handy, and suits me so well, that I do not know how I shall get along without it when we move away from here.' He was standing before a mirror, brushing his hair, when he made the remark. 'Well, father,' Mrs. Lincoln replied, 'if you like the stand so well, we will take it with us when we go away.' 'Not for the world,' he exclaimed; but she interrupted him: 'I should like to know what difference it makes if we put a better one in its place.' 'That alters the question. If you will put a stand in its place worth twice as much as this one, and the Commissioner consents, then I have no objection.'

Mrs. Lincoln remembered these words, and, with the consent of the Commissioner, took the stand to Chicago with her for the benefit of little Tad...

It is charged that a great deal of furniture was lost from the White House during Mr. Lincoln's occupation of it. Very true, and it can be accounted for in this way: In some respects, to put the case very plainly, Mrs. Lincoln was 'penny wise and pound foolish.' When she moved into the White House, she discharged the Steward, whose business it was to look after the affairs of the household. When the Steward was dismissed, there was no one to superintend affairs, and the servants carried away many pieces of furniture. In this manner the furniture rapidly disappeared.

Robert was frequently in the room where the boxes were being packed, and he tried without avail to influence his mother to set fire to her vast stores of old goods. 'What are you going to do with that old dress, mother?' he would ask. 'Never mind, Robert, I will find use for it. You do not understand this business.' 'And what is more, I hope I never may understand it. I wish to heaven the car would take fire in which you place these boxes for transportation to Chicago, and burn all of your old plunder up;' and then, with an impatient gesture, he would turn on his heel and leave the room...

Many of the articles that Mrs. Lincoln took away from the White House were given, after her arrival in Chicago, for the benefit of charity fairs."
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/keckley/keckley.html

(If you read on you will find that Tad in the Chicago beginnings wasn't able to spell.)