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ReignetteC · (This post was last modified: 06-01-2016 10:34 PM by ReignetteC.)

(06-01-2016 11:13 AM)Houmes Wrote:
(05-30-2016 11:00 PM)ReignetteC Wrote: [quote='L Verge' pid='42436' dateline='1420499254']
I would think that someone at some time would have checked to see if the pockets themselves were stained with blood???

BTW: Were the gloves found in the pocket of Lincoln's greatcoat or in the pocket of the frock coat to his suit? I have never seen that differentiated.

It would seem to me that one generally takes off one's gloves and puts them in the pocket of the outer coat (i.e. the greatcoat). Lincoln had removed the greatcoat upon entering the box, had he not? The blood would have run into the pockets of his frock coat. Is that where the gloves were found? Not in the pockets of the outer greatcoat? Could the gloves have dropped on the floor at some point and absorbed some of Rathbone's blood? So many questions, so many possibilities.

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I found your excellent query while reading through some threads (vacation allows such pleasure). Lincoln was wearing his overcoat (great coat ) when Booth shot him. Per Rathbone's affidavit: "The president seated himself in this chair, and except that he once left this chair for the purpose of putting on his overcoat, remained so seated until he was shot."

I've always been leery of Lincoln blood relics, as there's frequently a shady provenance, an explanation more legend then fact, and/or a lack of scientific analysis. Lincoln's black frock coat (a suit or body coat with a tail) and other clothing were obtained by the National Park Service in 1968 from the descendants of Alphonso Donn, a doorkeeper at the White House. It was a gift to him from Mary Todd Lincoln. In a letter dated 1977 Harold Peterson (former Chief Curator of the National Park Service) reported how he helped clean and treat the President's clothing, including the Brooks Brothers overcoat. His letter mentioned blood stains only on the collar, but did not specify whether it was the frock coat or the overcoat. In a 2007 Washington Post article there was mention that both coats had blood stains, but not where the stains were located. There was mention that the president's pants also had blood stains, on both knees. He was slumped over when Dr. Leale arrived in the box, and was immediately placed on the on the floor to be examined and treated. Newton Ferree, a discharged soldier, went into the theatre box after Lincoln had been carried over to the Petersen house and found Mr. Lincoln's shirt collar "in a pool of blood." I have only ever seen one assessment of a blood relic--by the then-named Armed Forces Institute of Pathology--after assessing a blood-stained sheet from Lincoln's deathbed. Blood could have come from Lincoln's head wound, but it also could have been from Major Rathbone's knife wound. The gloves from President Lincoln's pockets certainly have distinctive stains, but unless they fell out of his coat at same point I would question : Is it blood? If so, which victim did it come from?

Thanks, Dr Houmes. In 1968, shortly after the Department of the Interior acquired the relics, it sent the five pieces - frock coat, vest, trousers, cravat, and overcoat -to the National Park Service's conservation laboratory for cleaning and restoration. Colonel James Rice oversaw the multi-step process, and he later provided a summary of the monumental task in the February, 1969, edition of Museum News. "Each garment was inspected for appearance," he wrote. "This inspection revealed that there were several areas of soil of a grease-like appearance . . . . These areas, which were unsightly, were to be found mainly on the backs of the coat collar, near the pocket openings, at the inside edges of sleeve cuffs and at occasional spots on other parts of the garments. There were also one or two small, rust-brown surface-eroded spots on the upper part of the overcoat which, from their position and appearance, were assumed to be blood stains that had changed by oxidation through the years to ferric oxide. No confirmation of this surmise was attempted, however (emphasis added).