The 1998 Spittoon Debate in the Lincoln home.

[LincolnMan]

I was thinking about Mrs. Lincoln owning forty footstools. At first that number sounds excessive; but was it then? You all tell me. If you placed a couple of them in the various rooms of a house the numbers would add up. Or am I off my rocker? Lol.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I once learned in psychology that all humans have a disposition to collect (excessively - and collecting is where we come from, we started out as hunter-gatherers). For Mary it was footstools, for others it's stamps, which are less space consuming, easier to store. I had a friend who collected hundreds of toy trains. Neither (used) stamps nor toy trains are more useful to possess than footstools, but Mary always gets the blame.

[STS Lincolnite]

I was thinking about Mrs. Lincoln owning forty footstools. At first that number sounds excessive; but was it then? You all tell me. If you placed a couple of them in the various rooms of a house the numbers would add up. Or am I off my rocker? Lol.

I would guess that from room to room the Lincoln footstools could add up pretty quickly especially considering Mary's ever changing tastes and tendency to buy, buy, buy. I don't know if your number is accurate, but having read through the rest of this thread, I'm sure it's within spitting distance.

[L Verge]

I'm enjoying the pundits here!

I was raised in a house that my ancestors moved into in 1860 and never left until the 1990s. There were footstools everywhere, especially in storage in the attic. Even the dining room always had an easy chair with footstool in a corner, and our house had a library that held one footstool when I was a child. Several upstairs bedrooms also had them. IMO, just one more thing to vacuum around...

As for being a collections addict, I'm guilty. For awhile forty years ago, I collected Lincoln assassination books, Sebastian Miniatures, cup plates, handleless cups and saucers, decorated eggs, and antique valentines -- and I'm talking large collections of each. I still have these collections, but divorce brought a screeching halt to my continuing to collect.

[Anita]

I was thinking about Mrs. Lincoln owning forty footstools. At first that number sounds excessive; but was it then? You all tell me. If you placed a couple of them in the various rooms of a house the numbers would add up. Or am I off my rocker? Lol.

Was this just in the Springfield house or the White House? I would think homes during Victorian times had more footstools than today and would wear out needing replacing.

[Susan Higginbotham]

I was thinking about Mrs. Lincoln owning forty footstools. At first that number sounds excessive; but was it then? You all tell me. If you placed a couple of them in the various rooms of a house the numbers would add up. Or am I off my rocker? Lol.

Was this just in the Springfield house or the White House? I would think homes during Victorian times had more footstools than today and would wear out needing replacing.

Robert Lincoln wrote in a letter to Leonard Swett dated May 25, 1884, that when his mother was on her way to the asylum at Batavia, she packed a "number of carpet bags," and that he peeked inside them when Mary's back was turned and saw that each contained a footstool. I don't know whether those were the same footstools Eva was referring to.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I seem to recall that her footstool collection partly accompanied her to France and back and was part of the threat to her sister's house second floor floor.

Laurie - thanks for sharing, I find it so fascinating and unique to hear what people collect! (And we owe quite some fascinating museums to such private collectors.) Now I will have to check out what Sebastian Miniatures are.

---

BTW - does any of Mary's footsools still exist, maybe somewhere on display?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Don't miss the presidential sugar bags:
http://m.atchuup.com/weirdest-collection...ings-ever/

[Anita]

Maybe Mary collected footstools because sitting on footstools facilitated in contacting the spirit world.

According to Jean Baker, "Then, after her return to Chicago, she had discovered that her hotel room resonated with voices. Just that Monday past she had asked a spiritualist who lived down the street from Robert to hold a seance, and on the fifth floor of the Grand Pacific Hotel they had sat on carpet-covered footstools in order to get in touch with the other world." http://tinyurl.com/jej97qp

[L Verge]

Wow - it must have been quite an experience getting off of those low things. The antique ones at our house weren't that big and only about a foot high - much smaller than the hassocks of the day or later.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Good point, Anita (- who knows how what size of parties she intended to invite to join her on such a trip?)

[LincolnMan]

The article was referring to the home in Springfield. Like Eva, I was wondering what happened to them all?