Lincoln artifacts at new America 250 exhibit at Reagan Library

[Steve]

You can read about it in this article:

https://www.kclu.org/local-news/2026-05-...exhibition

[J. Beckert]

I've never heard that Lincoln had a Ford's Theatre ticket stub in his pocket.

[RJNorton]

I agree with Joe. Here's the list I had in my files: a pocketknife, a linen handkerchief, a sleeve button, a fancy watch fob, two pairs of spectacles, a lens polisher, a tiny pencil, and a brown leather wallet (one section was engraved "U.S. Currency" and another section was engraved "Notes"). The wallet contained a Confederate 5 dollar bill, and 9 old newspaper clippings. Included among these clippings were 2 articles of praise and 5 others dealing with the issues that were on Lincoln's mind during his final months. These items are now in the Library of Congress. A Ford's Theatre ticket stub is not on the list I have. Did the Lincoln party even need tickets?

[David Lockmiller]

(06-02-2026 03:52 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  "9 old newspaper clippings. Included among these clippings were 2 articles of praise and 5 others dealing with the issues that were on Lincoln's mind during his final months. These items are now in the Library of Congress."

I would be interested to know the specifics.

[Steve]

I read the article as saying that Christie's loaned a ticket from Ford's Theatre that night, not that the ticket was given to Lincoln. Lincoln was the invited guest with a special box, so wouldn't have needed to be given a ticket.

I didn't mention this in my original post, but I feel confident those gloves weren't Lincoln's. If they were in his pocket, they shouldn't have blood on them. My guess, they may have belonged to one of the doctors treating Lincoln and left in the room in Petersen House and then shipped back to Mary Lincoln with the rest of Lincoln's clothes left at Willie Clark's room.

[Steve]

The article is referring to a ticket stub from the Orchestra section sold at the same auction as the bloody gloves:

https://news.justcollecting.com/blood-st...2-million/

[Gene C]

Wow!

"The blood-stained leather gloves were the most valuable lot in a major sale of 144 pieces being sold by the Lincoln Presidential Foundation through Freeman’s and Hindman.

The sale brought in $6.2 million (before fees), going well over a $4 million total low estimate, with all but eight items selling.

The Foundation was selling the artefacts to pay off a $23-million loan it had taken out to make a major purchase of Lincolniana in 2007. "

19 years later and they are still trying to pay of this loan.
I wonder what the balance of the loan is now.
I also wonder what items they purchased back in 2007 the Foundation still has.

Here is the subject for a fictional and/or non-fiction book waiting to be written.

[RJNorton]

David, there is more information here:

https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussi...2#pid86850

[David Lockmiller]

(06-03-2026 06:48 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  David, there is more information here:

https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussi...2#pid86850

RJNorton Wrote:
I checked my files and found he was carrying 9 newspaper articles, not 8. Here are some details:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The first and the fourth describe Emancipation of the Slaves in the new State Constitution of Missouri which called for giving slaves their Freedom on July 4, 1870. They are critical of the Radical Republicans in Congress who argued for more immediate release.

... the radicals are not satisfied with the death of slavery. Like the boy who pounded the dead snake, they want to "make it deader." and we have no objections to any blows inflicted upon the institution. But because the President did not yield to demands of the radicals that seemed intolerant and obtrusive, he is charged by hundreds of furious journalists with deserting "the cause of freedom.." The charge is unfounded and absurd. doubtless he would rejoice as heartily as any radical, at the speedy abolition of slavery in Missouri, but he is not disposed to encourage excess that might damage the good cause itself.

The second and third clippings relate the two platforms of the contending political parties in the election of 1864 without comment.

The fifth and sixth purport to be actual letters from disaffected Southern soldiers found on the battlefield. "The Conscript's Epistle to Jeff Davis" is especially colorful in its language, calling the chief executive of the rebelling states a "bastard President of a political abortion."

The seventh clipping contains the famous marching orders of General William Tecumseh Sherman issued on November 9, 1864, which dispatched his troops to fight their way across the South to the Atlantic Ocean. There were to be no supply trains. The soldiers were to live off the land, but were specifically ordered to discriminate "between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor or industrious" who were "usually neutral or friendly."

The eighth and ninth clippings are articles favorable to President Lincoln, One recounts a speech by Reverend Henry Ward Beecher in Philadelphia at the Academy of Music. The other reports a letter from the English Reformer John Bright to the American newspaper editor Horace Greely which is full of praise for Lincoln's leadership and his re-election as President in the fall of 1864. We see his presidency, Bright wrote, as "an honest endeavor faithfully to do the work of his great office, and in the doing of it, a brightness of personal honor on which no adversary has yet been able to fix a stain."

Source: Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, retired Maryland State Archivist

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Additionally the President was carrying more papers than the Library of Congress states. These papers fell out into the street as the men were carrying Lincoln across the street to the Petersen House. The papers were turned over to Edwin Stanton; nobody knows their location today.

Roger, do you, or does anyone else for that matter, know if anyone has identified the dates and publications of the clippings that were found in Lincoln's pockets?

[RJNorton]

(06-04-2026 10:23 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  Roger, do you, or does anyone else for that matter, know if anyone has identified the dates and publications of the clippings that were found in Lincoln's pockets?

David, I do not have that information.

[Linda Anderson]

(06-04-2026 03:19 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(06-04-2026 10:23 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  Roger, do you, or does anyone else for that matter, know if anyone has identified the dates and publications of the clippings that were found in Lincoln's pockets?

David, I do not have that information.

David,

Here's a link to the Library of Congress record, "The contents of Abraham Lincoln's pockets on the evening of his assassination." It includes images of the newspaper clippings.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/lprbscsm.sc...st=gallery

[David Lockmiller]

(06-05-2026 12:22 AM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  David,

Here's a link to the Library of Congress record, "The contents of Abraham Lincoln's pockets on the evening of his assassination." It includes images of the newspaper clippings.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/lprbscsm.sc...st=gallery

Linda, thank you for this information.

I quote in part from image 26:

Mr. Beecher, in his peculiar quiet way, said "Abraham Lincoln may be a great deal less testy and willful than Andrew Jackson, but in the long race, I do not know but he will be equal to him."

The storm of applause that followed this seemed as if it would never cease. The turn given to popular enthusiasm, by the mention of Lincoln's name along side of Jackson's, was wholly unexpected. But the spontaneous outburst showed how strong a hold the President has upon the popular heart throughout the loyal north.

[Steve]

(06-04-2026 10:23 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  Additionally the President was carrying more papers than the Library of Congress states. These papers fell out into the street as the men were carrying Lincoln across the street to the Petersen House. The papers were turned over to Edwin Stanton; nobody knows their location today.

Roger, do you, or does anyone else for that matter, know if anyone has identified the dates and publications of the clippings that were found in Lincoln's pockets?

Reck's book mentions the theory of Dr. Oliver Orr of the Library of Congress; Orr believed the Hanscom dispatch and the other papers (if there are any) were cycled through different hands after they were retrieved and are now mixed in with thousands of other papers in the Library's collection.

From what I have been able to ascertain -- the papers came out of Lincoln's pockets in the theater. Likely in the box when they were cutting away Lincoln's Great Coat and Frock Coat looking for the wound. The papers were given to Capt. Edwin Bedee of New Hampshire, who was among the group who went with Lincoln from the theater to Petersen House (Bedee may or may not have been helping to carry the President). Eventually Bedee gave the papers to Stanton at Petersen House (Bedee's later account suggested there were instructions given to him by Stanton to find and deliver the papers to Hay but that failed and Bedee ended up giving them to Stanton anyway.) Stanton then put them in the War Department safe where they remained until April 18th. Correspondence from the Hay papers suggest they were sent to the White House on the 18th, but that correspondence is from 1887, two decades later --- with Hay himself apparently not remembering what happened to the papers.

[Gene C]

My Russian informants tell me these were secret love letters to and from Ann Rutledge uncovered by Wilma Frances Flinstone and sold to the Atlantic Monthly.
Intended to create a a scandal for the Lincoln administration, they were not published due to the assassination. Hidden away and forgotten for several years, in a hermetically sealed mayonnaise jar they were rediscoverd by Wilma who passed them on to Atlantic Monthly with much fanfare.


It was later discovered that due to the passage of time and faded print, some of these letters were really prototypes of direct mail advertising by AARP. However, the original goal to keep the Rutledge/Lincoln letters private was somewhat successful when William Seward paid the Russian government a cleverly disguised ransom of a whopping $0.02 fer acre for the useless Alaskan territory.