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Lincoln Wonk · 05-20-2016, 09:14 AM

This is not technically assassination-related, but very interesting:

http://www.sj-r.com/article/20160519/NEWS/160519394

RJNorton · 05-20-2016, 01:14 PM

RE: ''I wish my remains to be clothes in the white silk dress which will be found in the lower drawer of the bureau in my room."

I do not think her wishes were honored. Maybe they weren't known? Catherine Clinton, in her Mary Lincoln bio, writes that, "Mary would be laid to rest in a new dress ordered by Elizabeth Edwards, sent down from Chicago in one last, lavish gesture to reflect an older sister's loving indulgence."

Eva Elisabeth · 05-20-2016, 06:06 PM

278.85$ would be ~6909$ nowadays.

Eva Elisabeth · (This post was last modified: 05-22-2016 08:36 AM by Eva Elisabeth.)

(05-20-2016 01:14 PM)RJNorton Wrote: RE: ''I wish my remains to be clothes in the white silk dress which will be found in the lower drawer of the bureau in my room."

I do not think her wishes were honored. Maybe they weren't known? Catherine Clinton, in her Mary Lincoln bio, writes that, "Mary would be laid to rest in a new dress ordered by Elizabeth Edwards, sent down from Chicago in one last, lavish gesture to reflect an older sister's loving indulgence."

Mary wrote this to Robert in 1874 - maybe when she passed away in 1882, the dress didn't exist anymore? Or Robert didn't forward the wish?

RJNorton · 05-22-2016, 09:50 AM

(05-22-2016 08:35 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote: Mary wrote this to Robert in 1874 - maybe when she passed away in 1882, the dress didn't exist anymore? Or Robert didn't forward the wish?

I agree, Eva. Either of these ideas is possible.

Gencor · 05-22-2016, 04:21 PM

(05-22-2016 08:35 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:
(05-20-2016 01:14 PM)RJNorton Wrote: RE: ''I wish my remains to be clothes in the white silk dress which will be found in the lower drawer of the bureau in my room."

I do not think her wishes were honored. Maybe they weren't known? Catherine Clinton, in her Mary Lincoln bio, writes that, "Mary would be laid to rest in a new dress ordered by Elizabeth Edwards, sent down from Chicago in one last, lavish gesture to reflect an older sister's loving indulgence."
Mary wrote this to Robert in 1874 - maybe when she passed away in 1882, the dress didn't exist anymore? Or Robert didn't forward the wish?

I have never read any accounts about Mrs. Lincoln's final wishes until I read this article but I tend to believe that by the time she died, if her sister sent the dress for her, either no one had any knowledge of her request or by then the dress just didn't exist. I am still amazed that the funeral expenses, in the year 1882, only came to almost $280.00. $225 for a casket and $1.50 for crepe and ribbon.

I love the idea of the "Lincoln Room" where the ledger will be kept on display.

L Verge · 05-22-2016, 05:46 PM

Depending on the type of fabric, the dress may have deteriorated over time also - to the point where flaws could not be hidden well. It was made of silk according to Mary's letter, and it is inclined to split at times (even when totally protected).

As an aside, we have the receipt for Mr. Surratt's coffin when he died in 1862. Mary paid $50 for a mahogany one - and he had already left her $3500 in debt!

Gencor · 05-22-2016, 08:57 PM

(05-22-2016 05:46 PM)L Verge Wrote: Depending on the type of fabric, the dress may have deteriorated over time also - to the point where flaws could not be hidden well. It was made of silk according to Mary's letter, and it is inclined to split at times (even when totally protected).

As an aside, we have the receipt for Mr. Surratt's coffin when he died in 1862. Mary paid $50 for a mahogany one - and he had already left her $3500 in debt!

If it did still exist, at the time of her death, who would have had the dress?

Susan Higginbotham · 05-22-2016, 11:12 PM

Even if the dress was new in 1874 (and it may not have been), it might have looked dated by 1882. Perhaps in the last days of her life, Mary requested that Elizabeth order a new dress for her burial, and Elizabeth was simply carrying out her wishes.

RJNorton · 05-23-2016, 03:51 AM

(05-22-2016 08:57 PM)Gencor Wrote: If it did still exist, at the time of her death, who would have had the dress?

Jason Emerson writes, "Her (Mary's) body was laid out in the parlor of the Edwards home, the same room in which she was married, in a white silk dress. Ironically, despite her sixty-eight trunks full mostly of clothing, Elizabeth Edwards had to send to Chicago for a suitable one."

Maybe the dress specified in 1874 was in one of these 68 trunks?

Eva Elisabeth · (This post was last modified: 05-23-2016 04:29 AM by Eva Elisabeth.)

Could it have been at Robert's home in Chicago? It would still have been new (unworn) as she had never worn anything but black) after the assassination (except for Tad's birthday).
Another point is that she had lost a lot of weight, maybe too much to adjust a dress of former times appropriately?

Gencor · 05-23-2016, 01:48 PM

(05-23-2016 03:51 AM)RJNorton Wrote:
(05-22-2016 08:57 PM)Gencor Wrote: If it did still exist, at the time of her death, who would have had the dress?

Jason Emerson writes, "Her (Mary's) body was laid out in the parlor of the Edwards home, the same room in which she was married, in a white silk dress. Ironically, despite her sixty-eight trunks full mostly of clothing, Elizabeth Edwards had to send to Chicago for a suitable one."

Maybe the dress specified in 1874 was in one of these 68 trunks?

Good thought, Roger! That also leads to another question. Mrs. Lincoln was in a mental hospital for a long time. I am sure that she had no need for those dresses or the trunks but would they have been kept through all of those years or would they have been given away or just discarded? I's obvious that either the trunks of dresses were gone or that they were so old and worn that they had to send to Chicago for a burial dress.

Eva Elisabeth · (This post was last modified: 05-23-2016 04:51 PM by Eva Elisabeth.)

Nope, the trunks hadn't disappeared. When Mary returned to Springfield in fall 1880 to live with her sister, she "stored 64 trunks weighting nearly four tons in two back rooms, where they threatened the floorboards... she spent hours reexploring her possessions" (from J. Baker's bio).Catherine Clinton writes that "the pile of trunks caused one maid to flee because she didn't want to sleep under a ceiling weighted down by Mary's excess baggage". One major content were footstools.

(Did you notice Jean Baker has 4 trunks less than Jason Emerson?)

RJNorton · 05-23-2016, 04:18 PM

(05-23-2016 04:03 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote: (Did you notice Jean Baker has 4 trunks less than Jason Emerson?)

Yes. I think the majority of sources I've seen have it at 64.

Susan Higginbotham · 05-23-2016, 06:26 PM

The source for the 64 trunks is Mary Edwards Brown, a great-niece of Mary, who was interviewed for Life magazine in 1959.

According to Donna McCreary, the 1874 letter in which Mary asked to be buried in the white silk dress in the drawer was written to Dr. Willis Danforth, not Robert Todd Lincoln. Donna cites Mark Neely and R. Gerald McMurty's The Insanity File as the source for stating that the Edwardses sent a telegram to Chicago for white silk after Mary's death, so if they were aware of the letter to Dr. Danforth, they seem to have honored Mary's wishes as to material at least.