Lincoln's Clothing

A few weeks ago, I posted an article about how curators at Ford's Theater moving the clothing that Abraham Lincoln wore the night of his assassination from the museum at Ford's to safe storage during the renovation of the theater.

Here's a very detailed photo of the gloves that Lincoln wore on that fateful night. One can still see the blood stains more than 140 years after the fact. Also shown is the handkerchief he had that night. This photo was taken at the Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois last year. I'm not sure if the gloves are on permanent display there, on loan from Ford's, or if they are from a private collection. This photo is part of a series in today's edition of the paper.

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UPDATE - Lincoln Dig A Bust

Just yesterday, I posted about the archaeological dig going on at Knob Creek, the boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky. I had speculated what archaeologists might find, including glassware or plates, or even the footprint of the original cabin.

Alas, today brings news that the search for anything related to Abraham Lincoln and his family recovered nothing. They couldn't locate the true site of the original cabin at all. The only significant items found were some stone chippings from Native Americans, who would chip at larger rocks or stones in order to shape them into tools or weapons. The chippings are remainders of those items.

The archaeologists believe that development over the last 100 years likely erased any traces of the Lincoln farm. The only item known to exist from the original home is a family bible.

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Archaeologists Diggin' For Lincoln

Found a story here about archaeologists from The National Park Service beginning an excavation at Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home site at Knob Creek, Kentucky. Lincoln and his family lived at this farm from the time he was 2 years old until he was almost 8 years old.

The article doesn't specifically state what the archaeologists hope to find. Certainly they would hope to find any "footprint" of the cabin itself, even though the original cabin has long since vanished. Archaeologists are trained to recognize any depressions in the ground, post holes where any logs might have been sunken into the ground, and so on. Recovered nails could be used to help determine the location as well. Original records of the property deeds would be researched to help place the location.

Believe it or not, the archaeologists would love nothing more to find a trash pit from the farm, or even the location of any outhouses! These types of pits can hold virtual treasure troves for archaeologists, for they typically include glass bottles, plates, eating utensils, pipe bowls, children's toys, and so forth. Families of the era and of earlier times would use outhouses as trash pits in addition to the more obvious use. Any unpleasant reminders of the main use for the outhouse would have long since solidified.

A real find, of course, would be something which archaeologists could identify positively as being associated with the Lincoln family. It's unlikely, though, that the family would have had any monogrammed glassware or plates since it was so poor. Such items are more typically found in well-to-do areas of the U.S. such as Williamsburg.

Obviously any wooden items and clothing would be long-since vanished. Wood and textiles decay rapidly in wet climates such as Kentucky's. Those are more likely to be recovered in the American west and other dry climates.

Let's hope the archaeologists uncover something significant. One of my many other interests besides Lincoln is the field of archaeology and I've participated in a couple of digs. This story will hold my interest.

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What Would Abe Drive?

A driver's license for Abraham Lincoln? One of the more interesting, if slightly amusing, souvenirs being issued for the upcoming bicentennial celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birth are "driver's licenses" showing his image, address, and vital statistics.

While doing my daily search for Lincoln news, I came upon this page from Webwire that talks about how Carolyn Martinette created these "licenses" as a way to both commemorate Lincoln's birth and provide some basic facts to the public. Licenses for the various states and Washington, D.C. in which he lived are available. Each state license depicts his "address" and then other facts on the reverse. Ms. Martinette is selling these items from her website. Sort of a clever idea, really. Good for kids who would like to know more about the 16th U.S. president. And who knows? They might become highly collectible Lincolnania items in the distant future.

Please note that I am in no way associated with Ms. Martinette or the licenses. I just try to bring interesting (hopefully) Lincoln news to my readers.

So what would Abe drive? Why, a Lincoln, of course!

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New Photos Of Lincoln's Second Inauguration Discovered!

Just a couple of months after the recent discovery of the "new" photographs of what is potentially Abraham Lincoln in the crowd at Gettysburg, comes the announcement tonight from the Library of Congress that "new" photos of the crowd at Lincoln's Second Inauguration have been discovered!

In the article available at the Library of Congress website, the story is told about how these three "new" glass negatives were discovered. These photos were previously known, but had been mislabeled as the Grand Review of The Armies, or of President Grant's inauguration ceremony. But then a sharp-eyed customer of the Library noted that these visually similar negatives had drastically different captions in the Library's Civil War catalogue. Then the curator of photography, Carol Johnson, reviewed the log book and found the caption "Lincoln" in the margins. Careful comparison between the only other known photos (just two existed) show these mislabeled photographic negatives to actually be crowd scenes at Lincoln's Second Inauguration.

The website containing this article provides links to the other recently identified photographs. None are known to show Lincoln, so technically these are not new Lincoln photos. But they most certainly help historians and other researchers gain more knowledge about the events of that day, just a few short weeks before the tragedy at Ford's Theater. Per the Library of Congress web page about this discovery, Lloyd Ostendorf's indispensable "Lincoln's Photographs" (1998 edition), pages 200-201, was used to help positively identify these new photos. I just finished consulting my volume of the book, and sure enough, the curator is correct. The photos in Ostendorf's book are from a different angle than these new ones, but the building and crowd scene are identical. What an important find!

What other Lincoln artifacts are out there just waiting to be discovered? I can't wait to find out!

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The Secret Service Protects Presidential Candidates

While I was watching "The Hunt For John Wilkes Booth" the other night, I was once again struck by the fact that Booth was able to gain such easy access to Lincoln on that fateful night. History well knows that the police officer assigned to guard Lincoln that night, John F. Parker, inexplicably disappeared from his post. Lincoln was left under the "protection"of his valet, and the rest is history.

Leaving the president unguarded is of course an impossibility today, thanks to the outstanding efforts of the United States Secret Service. The Secret Service was ironically founded in July 1865, just three months after the first assassination of an American president. However, the Service did not actually begin even unofficial protection to the president until 1894 during the Grover Cleveland administration. Official full-time protection was provided beginning in 1902, a few months after the assassination of President William McKinley. Today, the Service provides 24-hour protection to the President and his immediate family, former presidents and their spouses (unless the spouse remarries), children of former presidents until the children turn 16, and visiting heads of state.

Beginning in 1968 with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the Secret Service began protection detail for the major presidential candidates as well. This article I found in The Toronto Star contains some great information about how current Democrat candidate Barack Obama is protected, and how the protection began early. The fear of course is that as an African-American man, Obama may attract more attention of criminals than the other candidates. Many of the Secret Service techniques are classified, but as this photo of Obama shows, he is shadowed by tough-looking agents.

Even with the outstanding efforts of these incredibly brave men and women, tragedy has of course struck. John F. Kennedy was killed while surrounded by agents, but was riding in an open car. Presidents and the leading candidates rarely do this these days and motorcade routes are carefully guarded secrets. Buildings along those routes are secured to try to prevent another Dallas. And there have been even more assassination attempts: two on President Ford, Ronald Reagan was nearly killed, and a plot against the first President Bush was discovered. Presidential candidate George Wallace was shot in 1972 during his own campaign.

America is unfortunately one of the most violent countries in the industrialized world. Let's hope and pray that an assassin's bullet never strikes any president, or presidential candidate, again.

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Review: The Hunt For John Wilkes Booth

As I posted on December 20, 2007, The History Channel recently showed a two-hour documentary about the 12-day hunt for John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Thanks to the hectic schedule of the holidays, I didn't watch it until last night. I thought I'd share my own opinion about the documentary.

"The Hunt For John Wilkes Booth" is based upon Michael W. Kauffman's excellent book published in 2004, titled: "American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and The Lincoln Conspiracies." Kauffman serves as the principal expert on the show. Other people adding their two cents were a man from the U.S. Marshals Service, to provide expertise about techniques in manhunting, and Betty J. Ownsbey, a biographer of Lewis Powell, the man who nearly killed William Seward.

As The History Channel tends to do, there were many re-created scenes of the historical events being discussed, but the scenes are repeated ad nauseam. I specifically refer to the scenes depicting Booth and his co-conspirator, David Herold, running through the woods. Of course, Booth and Herold did spend many days hiding out in the Pine Thicket and other woods, but just how many times do we need to see the actors in the trees? One somewhat comical aspect of the scenes was the fact that "Booth" hobbled on his right leg sometimes and on his left leg at others. Of course, the real Booth broke his left leg.

The documentary makers were smart enough to show the actual sites of the assassination and the manhunt. Kauffman showed the Presidential Box at Ford's Theater, the room where Lincoln died, Mary Surratt's house, Dr. Samuel Mudd's house, and finally the site of the farm where Booth was shot and killed, which is today a wooded median strip in a highway. Filming at the various sites was especially informative to me as I've never been to the Surratt and Mudd houses.

There were some relatively minor omissions from the documentary, which might have added some context. One closeup showed the puzzling "Don't wish to disturb you. Are you at home?" that John Wilkes Booth wrote on a calling card and placed in the mailbox of Vice-President Andrew Johnson. Historians continue to debate the card to this day, and some theorists even believe it implicates Johnson in the plot. Nothing was discussed in the documentary about the card and it implied that this was the card that Booth gave to Lincoln's valet.

While the documentary of course included Mary Surratt and her role in the conspiracy, it did not mention that she was the first woman executed by the Federal Government. It also didn't discuss the frantic efforts to get her sentence reduced to life or less. Perhaps the documentary makers didn't think that was important in the context of the manhunt for Booth. But it did go on to show photos of the hanging of her, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt, so I do think the extraordinary fact of excecuting a woman should have had been briefly discussed.

The documentary closes with a "what happened to" summary of the other conspirators: the hangings of course; and the sentencing to prison of Edmund Spangler, Dr. Mudd, and Michael O' Laughlin. I'm surprised, though, that it didn't have a follow-up about Mary Surratt's son, John. He ended up escaping punishment entirely, although he was tried for murder in a civil court in 1867. Had he been caught and tried by the military tribunal, he most likely would have been hanged along with his mother.

As in his book, Kauffman equivocates about the role of Dr. Samuel Mudd in the conspiracy. His brief discussion in the show seemed to imply to me, at least, that Mudd knew Booth, but that Mudd didn't know about the plot to kill Lincoln. This is in contrast to other historians' opinions, most notably that of Edward Steers, Jr. I tend to agree with the historians who believe Mudd had a very large role in the conspiracy and was by no means an innocent man, no matter the protestations of his family.

All in all, I found the documentary to be very informative and quite well done, unlike some other History Channel documentaries I've suffered through. Kauffman is an engaging expert and having the U.S. Marshal explaining manhunt techniques was quite clever. I found the biographer for Powell to be superfluous. I'd recommend this documentary to anyone who might wish to view it. The History Channel website currently lists it for sale on DVD.

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