Stanton dealing with Lincoln's death

[BettyO]

Quote:Sounds very strange- but was it so odd back then?

Probably not. Victorian people were very much attuned to death and it's consequences. They were also after the "Great Second Awakening" much more in touch with religion involving death and the "hereafter." The corpse of a dead person was considered "sacred" - a house for the soul and therefore needed a "casket" (the word coffin was not utilized that much.) The term casket was referred to as a receptacle for jewels or precious items and therefore the body was considered to be so prized as the soul's container that it needed a casket to "house" it when buried.

Stanton's "digging up of the girl's corpse" is indicative of the era. Folk feared being buried alive. This is what Stanton perceived. There were at the time caskets with small bells attached to a string so that if the "corpse" being in a coma survived the burial and awakened to find themselves coffined, they could pull the string, ring the bell and summons help. I believe that this system originated in Germany. It was also utilized here and in the UK.

It is said that Robert E. Lee's mother suffered from epilepsy. She once had a seizure where she went into a deep coma for a day or so. Her family could not revive her, she showed no signs of life and so thought the worse. The story goes that she was "laid out", placed within a coffin and while being transported to the burial ground at Shirley Plantation where she was then living with her family and 3 year old Robert, she suddenly revived, came to within the coffin and began screaming and clawing at the coffin top. The procession immediately stopped, the coffin was opened and she was carried, alive, back to the house in company of her joyous relatives.

Death was all around in the Victorian era. Photographs were taken, folk went into deep mourning out of respect for the deceased and that was considered "normal." To not mourn for the given period was considered to be a disgrace; not showing proper respect for the "dear departed."

Queen Victoria showed her love and respect for her Consort Albert by remaining in black mourning clothes for the rest of her life.

Likewise, I believe that Mary Lincoln did as well. This was considered normal and no one saw anything strange in it. After WWI, folk didn't place such strong attachment to "mourning" and today we see it as "morbid" or weird.

[L Verge]

For over ten years, the Surratt House Museum would stage an "In Mourning" exhibit every July. We did not want it to be specific to Mary Surratt's execution in July of 1865, but rather to show what Victorian customs consisted of. A mourning drape was placed on the front door; mirrors and her portrait (modern) were draped in crepe, a coffin (Betty, double-check that because I think you have it reversed) was in the parlor; the shades were drawn; a pan of make-believe ice was placed beneath the coffin; a mannequin in full mourning stood nearby.

In the family dining room, the table was set for a funeral tea, which included ham and raisin pie. And upstairs, the master bedroom was turned into a sick room - complete with a mortician's straw basket which would have been used to transport the dead body. The best part of the entire exhibit, however, was in our adjacent exhibit area in the old house where showcase material showed everything from death photos to mourning jewelry to mourning stationery, several period obituaries from the 1800s, even down to an antique bottle of formaldehyde and black straight pins. It was a very popular exhibit and was soon copied by other house museums. We hope to revive it on a small scale in 2014, when the museum will focus its programs on themes related to the Civil War on the Home Front.

Personally, my grandfather went to our family cemetery about two years after the death of his first-born child. Leonard died in 1902 at the age of 22 months. Grandpa dug up the body to view his son, who was perfectly preserved, but had turned to dark stone. On another occasion in the 1970s, I attended the funeral of my husband's Russian grandfather. There were many photographs taken of him in his casket to send back to his family who had remained in Russia. They were to prove that Jeda was given an impressive farewell.

[RJNorton]

In Bloody Crimes author James Swanson is very critical of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. From p. 392:

One museum has tried to re-create what it must have been like to experience the Lincoln death pageant and view his corpse. In Springfield, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum built a replica of the city’s Hall of Representatives, where the president lay in state. The original room, which still exists, is one block away in the Old State House, where it is fitted out as the legislative chamber Lincoln would recognize from his day. But in the museum’s facsimile chamber, it is forever May 3-4, 1865. Black crepe and bunting smother the space, and upon an inclined catafalque rests a replica of Lincoln’s coffin. The overall effect is somber and impressive, until one takes a closer look. The corpse is missing; the coffin is closed. How could a Lincoln museum, of all places, commit such a spectacular historical error? In Springfield, as in each city where a public viewing occurred, the coffin was open. The American people were desperate to see Lincoln’s remains.

At the museum’s grand opening, a visitor pointed out the error to an employee. “We know,” the official replied. “We did it on purpose. We can’t show what it was really like. We can’t have an open coffin with a wax figure inside. It would upset the children."

Perhaps the children of 1865 were hardier than today’s generation — during the national obsequies, tens of thousands of children viewed Lincoln’s remains. Nonetheless, the museum chose to go to great effort and expense to create an exhibit that is not authentic. Strangely, the museum was not reluctant to construct a replica of Lincoln’s box at Ford’s Theatre, and to place in it a life-size figure of John Wilkes Booth assassinating the president. Nor was the gift shop reluctant to sell to children a plastic, toy replica of the Deringer pistol Booth used to murder Abraham Lincoln, or to place a second life-size figure of Booth not far from the main entrance, within sight of other figures of Lincoln and his family, and Frederick Douglass. It is bizarre that in the city where Lincoln lies buried, multiple effigies of his assassin stand erect. Thus, the Lincoln museum there enjoys the singular distinction of being the only presidential library and museum in America to boast a waxworks devoted to an assassin.

[Jim Garrett]

I believe Stanton's home in Richmond Ohio is now.......................a funeral home.

[Houmes]

(09-08-2013 12:57 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  In Bloody Crimes author James Swanson is very critical of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. From p. 392:

One museum has tried to re-create what it must have been like to experience the Lincoln death pageant and view his corpse. In Springfield, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum built a replica of the city’s Hall of Representatives, where the president lay in state. The original room, which still exists, is one block away in the Old State House, where it is fitted out as the legislative chamber Lincoln would recognize from his day. But in the museum’s facsimile chamber, it is forever May 3-4, 1865. Black crepe and bunting smother the space, and upon an inclined catafalque rests a replica of Lincoln’s coffin. The overall effect is somber and impressive, until one takes a closer look. The corpse is missing; the coffin is closed. How could a Lincoln museum, of all places, commit such a spectacular historical error? In Springfield, as in each city where a public viewing occurred, the coffin was open. The American people were desperate to see Lincoln’s remains.

At the museum’s grand opening, a visitor pointed out the error to an employee. “We know,” the official replied. “We did it on purpose. We can’t show what it was really like. We can’t have an open coffin with a wax figure inside. It would upset the children."

Perhaps the children of 1865 were hardier than today’s generation — during the national obsequies, tens of thousands of children viewed Lincoln’s remains. Nonetheless, the museum chose to go to great effort and expense to create an exhibit that is not authentic. Strangely, the museum was not reluctant to construct a replica of Lincoln’s box at Ford’s Theatre, and to place in it a life-size figure of John Wilkes Booth assassinating the president. Nor was the gift shop reluctant to sell to children a plastic, toy replica of the Deringer pistol Booth used to murder Abraham Lincoln, or to place a second life-size figure of Booth not far from the main entrance, within sight of other figures of Lincoln and his family, and Frederick Douglass. It is bizarre that in the city where Lincoln lies buried, multiple effigies of his assassin stand erect. Thus, the Lincoln museum there enjoys the singular distinction of being the only presidential library and museum in America to boast a waxworks devoted to an assassin.

I believe Mr. Swanson has missed the point. Anyone today knows what President Lincoln looked like and with a modicum of research can learn what he looked like after death. Many (if not most) citizens in 1865 had never seen him alive, let alone viewed for any length of time a simple Brady photograph of him. Rather than a "spectacular historical error" the intent of these displays in the presidential museum today is to create a mood for reflection of the nation's loss and venerate him, a far different design than in the lobby where the corny wax model stands, available for tourists to be photographed next to it. In regards to Booth, his figure there is a little odd and ironic, but I've never seen or heard of anyone paying tribute to him inside or outside the building. The museum was designed as an evolutionary process, starting out providing visitors with simple, almost innocent displays, then showing the challenges of life in the 19th century and how it affected the nation, his life, and his legacy.