LINCOLN, Mary Todd (1818-1882). Autograph letter signed ("Mary Lincoln"), to B.B. French, Washington, D.C., 16 January 1864.

3pp., 8vo (254 x 203 mm), on Executive Mansion stationery, old folds, old adhesive residue on verso blank.

MARY LINCOLN WRITES ON BEHALF OF WHITE HOUSE EMPLOYEE ALPHONSE DUNN.

In full: "I write you in behalf of a most worthy young man - the one in place of Burns named Dunn. He makes more outside and there is every probability we will lose him if his salary is not a little increased, as he finds it to him at the present rate impossible. Can you not by adding $15 a month to it, which will then be $75? We would dislike very much to lose so efficient a person at the door, on account of so small an amount and we can readily imagine that $75 a month would require great economy. Just now, that we feel so perfectly satisfied about the door man, it would be very unpleasant to change them - and I am sure you would oblige me, about Dunn's wages. I am very respectfully..."

Alphonse Dunn entered the Lincolns' employ in late 1863, likely tapped from the Metropolitan Police Department. Though conscious of the need for security personnel at the White House, Lincoln, who did not want to seem inaccessible, insisted that they wear plain clothes. Dunn clearly occupied a position of great trust in the Lincoln family, as he was often spoken of fondly and, on the night of 14 April 1865, was accompanying Tad Lincoln to Grover's Theater for a performance of Aladdin! or His Wonderful Lamp. He would take the boy home once news broke of his father's assassination and would remain at his side until morning.

Following the president's death, Mary Todd Lincoln gifted Dunn with the frock coat, overcoat, and pants the president had worn to Ford's Theatre. In the ensuing years, Dunn was known to clip pieces of the coat, supposedly stained with the president's blood, and gift them to friends and admirers. The coat was offered for auction in the 1920s and failed to sell, and so it remained in Dunn's family until 1968, when it was donated to Ford's Theater in honor of its reopening.

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This lot is located in Chicago.