Relics

[L Verge]

I suspect that Betty is facetiously referring to a modern key to the modern coffin that she had made and donated for the reburial of Lewis's skull in Florida back in the 1990s when it was released to the Powell family by the Smithsonian.

If you are curious about coffin locks, go here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHBB5LfBLLs I'm not positive about this, but I think coffin locks are something that came about after the great Johnstown Flood in which many coffins were forced from the ground and displaced miles away. I think another thing that was created after that was the little tube that contains the deceased's pertinent information (name, death date, place of burial, etc.). It's inserted at the foot of the closed casket, I believe, in preparation for other natural disasters. I was once told that coffins/caskets should not be hermetically sealed because it hastens decomposition and can result in a literal explosion of the body inside the coffin.

Sleep well tonight, my friends. This information stems from Surratt House putting on a very popular 19th-century mourning exhibit for over ten years. The Smithsonian would even book in tour buses with us during the time it was up! Funeral and mourning customs are really an interesting part of any society's cultural history. Even the customs that were derived from Lincoln's demise -- increased embalming and the tradition of elaborate floral displays, for example -- have a place in history.