Lincoln's Slippers

[Susan Higginbotham]

https://www.gq.com/story/abraham-lincoln...qiwjm-c_lE

[GustD45]

I can somehow picture Mr. Lincoln pottering about the White House wearing slippers embroidered with goats. They look extremely comfortable almost as though the wearer were barefoot.

[RJNorton]

Trivia question:

I can think of one other instance where the topic of Lincoln and slippers (not the ones in this thread) enters the overall Lincoln saga. Where and when did this happen?

[L Verge]

(02-13-2019 02:25 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Trivia question:

I can think of one other instance where the topic of Lincoln and slippers (not the ones in this thread) enters the overall Lincoln saga. Where and when did this happen?

For some reason, I'm thinking at the Willard Hotel where Mr. Willard or someone loaned him a pair to relieve his aching feet after his arrival in the city as President-elect?

[RJNorton]

Great memory, Laurie! Over 4 years ago we discussed on this forum how Lincoln had forgotten his slippers in Springfield and needed to borrow a pair when he was staying at the Willard Hotel as President-elect. Here is how a couple of web pages describe what happened:

"Lincoln and his family had a comfortable suite on the second floor. The problem of his perpetually aching feet was solved quickly with typical Willard ingenuity. In the rush to conceal his arrival in Washington, Lincoln had forgot his bedroom slippers. But Henry’s wife had just knitted a colorful pair for her grandfather, who had similarly big feet. Lincoln borrowed them for the duration of his stay at the hotel."

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-willard-hotel


"Lincoln’s slippers had been left behind in his luggage when he departed suddenly for Washington. Ernest B. Furgurson wrote in Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War, “This set off Willard’s first test as host to the incoming president. His own slippers would not do for Lincoln; Abe’s feet were too big. Nor could Willard think of any guest whose slippers might fit. Then he remembered that his wife’s grandfather, seventy-eight-year-old former congressman William Czar Bradley, who was visiting at Willard’s house across the street, had ‘a good large foot.’ The old man was delighted to have the honor of lending his slippers to a Republican he greatly admired, and so Lincoln wore them for days, perhaps weeks, before returning them with a note of appreciation."

http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/wash...rds-hotel/

[Eva Elisabeth]

And I bet he never washed them to the day of his death...

[Mylye2222]

Is it also fact or myth that sometimes Lincoln had office hours interwiew in slippers?

[RJNorton]

Yes, I think so. There is information regarding Lincoln and slippers on this page:

http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/wash...iers-home/

Welcome to the forum, Emilie!

[Mylye2222]

(11-22-2019 06:07 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Yes, I think so. There is information regarding Lincoln and slippers on this page:

http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/wash...iers-home/

Welcome to the forum, Emilie!

And it states it sometimes embarrassed citizens dressed in their Best Sunday clothing.

[L Verge]

(11-22-2019 06:17 PM)Mylye2222 Wrote:  

(11-22-2019 06:07 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Yes, I think so. There is information regarding Lincoln and slippers on this page:

http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/wash...iers-home/

Welcome to the forum, Emilie!

And it states it sometimes embarrassed citizens dressed in their Best Sunday clothing.

We know that Lincoln had foot problems -- and when your feet hurt, you seek comfort, despite who is around you. My shoes are the first things I take off when I come home each night. Rick Smith of this forum gives tours at Surratt House in handmade, authentic, knee-high boots of the period, and I have heard him complain about his feet hurting after he's put in a four-hour shift at the museum.