W. A. Evans: "Mrs. Abraham Lincoln"

[Eva Elisabeth]

I'm not good at writing reviews, so I just recommend this book, also for the timelines, and quote from the cover: "First published in 1932, this was the first thoroughly researched biography of Mary Lincoln ever
written...". Surprisingly as for the publication date, the book is excellently footnoted - and the author has contacted several contemporaries of the Lincolns to get his information!

There's more info here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0809329719...ot_redir=1

Roger once wrote this:
http://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussio...s#pid23340

There's the following b/w picture in it the description of which reads: "Mary Todd when about twenty years old. From a portrait painted from a daguerreotype, by Katherine Helm." Does anyone know what daguerreotype that could be? And/or where to find in color? (As it is a painting I assume it is coloured.)
   
When searching for the latter I came across this site I'd like to share, also because there's a nice anecdote about a smart Tad, a rebel Katherine, and a Lincoln quick at repartee I've never read before.
http://patriciamossart.com/lincolns-rebe...rine-helm/

[LincolnToddFan]

Hi Eva,

I have read the Evans book. I can't say I enjoyed it...way too dry and clinical. However the passage of the book I most remembered is the author's opinion that from 1861-1865 MTL should not be held responsible for her behavior. I take this to mean he feels that she was fully under the grip of her illness by the time they she reached the White House.

BTW, that photo of MTL in your post was donated to the WH in the 1920's by the Helm/Todd family. It has hung in the Lincoln Bedroom ever since then.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Compared to many (especially male) authors, I found he mostly treated he fairly and also pointed out her accomplishments. Dry, well, I found it quite informative, but generally I like "dry" books with many facts rather than (entire) fiction.

[RJNorton]

Does anyone know what daguerreotype that could be?

The only one I can think of is she used the c.1846 Shepherd daguerreotype (even though it doesn't look the same).

[LincolnToddFan]

Yes, he was very balanced. I appreciated that. But reading that book sometimes felt like I was reading a medical journal and for the most part I didn't enjoy it.

But he made conclusions that I agreed with.

[RJNorton]

I believe this is the one in the Lincoln Bedroom:

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Roger. This one looks to me as if it was painted from this photo (???):
   
BTW, did Katherine Helm also paint this one?
   

[RJNorton]

BTW, did Katherine Helm also paint this one?

Eva, I think that one was done by George Peter Alexander Healy.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Roger!! I like that painting.

[LincolnMan]

It's a lovely painting. So it portrays Mary as she appeared during the Washington years?

[RJNorton]

It's a lovely painting. So it portrays Mary as she appeared during the Washington years?

You are right, Bill. There is more information at the link Eva provided above. From Eva's link:

"On February 18, 1926, she presented President Calvin Coolidge a three-quarter length portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln as Katherine believed she looked at her husband’s inauguration in 1861. Katherine Helm’s depiction of Mary Todd Lincoln is still the official White House portrait of the 16th First Lady."

[RJNorton]

a nice anecdote about a smart Tad

Here is another one. It comes from William Crook's Through Five Administrations:

"Haliday, aided by the gardener, was about to take up the carpet in the congressional, or state, dining-room. The long table made it somewhat difficult, and they were debating about which end to attack it from, when Tad appeared. He surveyed the field.

'Jim,' he said to Haliday. 'I have a favor to ask of you. Jim, grant it,' he coaxed.

Jim, of course, said 'Yes,' as every one had a way of doing—and yet it wasn't because it was the President's son.

'Now, Jim,' he said, taking an attitude of command, 'you work with the other man. I will boss the job.' And Haliday, talking about it, asserts to this day: 'He told us just how to go about it. And there was no one could engineer it better than he did."

[LincolnToddFan]

Roger, that Helm painting of MTL as a young woman is just beautiful. I am sure that Mary herself would be thrilled that it hangs officially in the Lincoln Bedroom!

Thanks for producing it here for all to see.

I remember reading somewhere that RTL felt that the Healy painting was the most accurate likeness of his father that he had ever seen. It was also a favorite of Jacqueline Kennedy. During important State occasions she always directed her staff to make sure it was prominently displayed.

[Donna McCreary]

Katherine Helm actually painted six (and maybe seven) portraits of Mary Lincoln. Eva, the one you mentioned hangs in a private residence in Kentucky. Take a close look at the hair, and you see that in the "younger" one, Mary's hair is parted slightly different. In her writings about the portrait, Katherine said that she used many sources for inspiration. She had written discriptions of Mary and her gowns from people who attended White House receptions. She had access to any photograph of Mary that was owned by Robert Lincoln - including the 1846 Shepherd daguerreotype. What Katherine actually painted was not a copy of any of the photographic images, but a combination of all with a lot of artistic imagination thrown in.

[Gene C]

This is a very interesting book. Available on line at
https://archive.org/details/mrsabrahamlincol006929mbp
or from Amazon in several different editions/publisher. If you purchase the book get one printed from a different publisher than Nabu Press.

I found the following a good summation of the information in this book regarding Mrs. Lincoln's behavioral and personality problems she exhibited.

A quote from William Stoddard, one of President Lincoln's private secretary's
"At first it was not easy to understand why a lady could one day be so kindly, considerate, so generous, so thoughtful, and so hopeful could upon another day appear so unreasonable, so irritable, so despondent, even so niggardly, and so prone to see the wrong side of men, women and events. It is easier to understand it all and to deal with it after a few words with an eminent medical practitioner."

'This can only mean that some time prior to 1864, a physician recognized Mrs. Lincoln's trouble and told Stoddard what it was, and that thereafter he was able to recognize the limits of her responsibility. Could others have known as much as Stoddard did, history would have been kinder to Mary Lincoln.'