Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln

Length of each, 9 in. (228 mm). Stamped size "9 1/4"; white leather gloves, with "T" stamped on clasp of each, ca. 1860s. Some flaking and cracks; elastic bands detached, but present; archival repairs to lining of each glove; contemporary repaired split at base of palm on right glove; each glove soiled and unevenly darkened.

A PAIR OF LEATHER GLOVES CARRIED BY PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN AT FORD'S THEATRE ON 14 APRIL 1865.

The Lincolns arrived at Ford's Theatre at 8:30 p.m., accompanied by Major Henry R. Rathbone and his fiancée, Miss Clara Harris. Orchestra leader William Withers noticed the group entering the theatre and interrupted the already in-progress play with a lively rendition of "Hail to the Chief." The packed house erupted into applause and enthusiastic cheers. President Lincoln "stepped to the box rail and acknowledged the applause with dignified bows and never-to-be forgotten smiles." Settling into the rocking chair procured by theater owner John T. Ford's brother Harry, Lincoln removed the leather gloves he'd worn for the occasion and tucked them into his left coat pocket as the play picked up where it had left off. Though known to have disliked wearing gloves, Lincoln made the concession to social custom at the time for politicians and other high profile individuals, by carrying at least two pairs with him at all times.

The box had been heavily draped with flags in order to provide the Lincolns and their guests some degree of privacy during the play. Dr. Charles Sabin Taft, seated below in the orchestra pit with his wife, was afforded an excellent view of the box and later reported that Mrs. Lincoln would often call her husband's attention to certain aspects of activity onstage and "seemed to take great pleasure in witnessing his enjoyment."

One actor paying particularly close attention to the lines uttered onstage wasn't onstage at all, though he was perhaps the biggest star of them all. John Wilkes Booth was noticed wandering about the theater throughout the play's second act by performers and theatergoers alike. It was shortly after the beginning of the third act when Booth walked to the door leading to the presidential box and handed a calling card to Lincoln's valet, Charles Forbes. Once inside, Booth placed a wedge against the door to ensure that no one could follow after him and then quietly approached a second door which opened into the presidential box. According to a letter by Harry Clay Ford's son written in 1962, earlier that day a small hole had been bored into the door leading into the presidential box so the guard on duty could check in without disturbing them. It was through this hole that Booth now peered, waiting for actor Harry Hawk to deliver the biggest applause line of the show, and Booth's cue to make his grand entrance:

"Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal - you sockdologizing old man-trap!"

Almost lost in the laughter and applause that followed these lines was the report of Booth's .44 caliber Deringer pistol. Lincoln slumped slightly forward and to his left. A thin trickle of blood had already begun to flow from the wound, staining his shoulder. Mary Lincoln screamed. Rathbone leapt to his feet and grappled with the intruder until a violent slash from the knife Booth brought with him sent Rathbone sprawling backward. Booth then leapt from the box, the spur of his boot catching in one of the flags draped across the box and landed awkwardly on the stage. He paused just long enough to shout "Sic semper tyrannis!" at the stunned audience before making his escape.

By the time Dr. Charles Taft was lifted into the presidential box by J.B. Stewart ("the tallest man in Washington" at six feet six inches), Dr. Charles Leale had already been admitted inside by Rathbone. It was only after feeling along the back of the president's skull and finding the hair on his left side matted with blood that Leale located the fatal wound. The president's coat, its left shoulder soaked in blood, had been removed along with his waistcoat. According to Dr. Taft the wound had already begun to clot and the bleeding mostly stopped by the time Lincoln was carried out of the box. The trip across the street to the Peterson House dislodged the clot and over the course of the night the wound had to be regularly cleaned, leading to further bleeding.

After the president expired at 7:22 a.m. on 15 April, his body was removed to the White House and placed in a guest room in the West Wing for an autopsy. At this time his clothes, with the gloves still in the left coat pocket, were given to Robert Todd Lincoln who then passed them along to his mother. In the years that followed Mary Lincoln sold some personal items of her own and of her husband's in order to address her mounting financial difficulties. Though her husband's estate left her with enough to live comfortably on the lavish spending habits which had caused such a scandal while she was First Lady were only exacerbated by her grief, and in 1868 she was forced to make a public appeal for aid in the New York World. mong those who responded was an old family friend and collector of presidential memorabilia, Captain Benjamin Richardson. Captain Richardson had previously purchased George Washington's coach, and hoped to add Lincoln relics to his collection which he intended to display in a planned presidential museum.

Mary Todd Lincoln responded to Captain Richardson's inquiry on June 16 from the Clifton House in Chicago, writing in part: "Prof. and Mrs. Sawyer have just paid me a call and handed me your letter, which I was very gratified to receive. I hasten to reply to it, fearing you may think I have been negligent regarding my promises. And yet I am sure you will be tantalized to know that some of the specialties promised have been in my room and only awaiting this being sent to Mr. Sawyer. Tomorrow, my little Taddie will carry them down to the University and it may be the rest I bring on to you myself."

According to an article published in the Brooklyn Eagle on 22 March 1925, and featuring a photograph of the gloves and a handkerchief, both possibly stained with the president's blood, were gifted to Richardson at the University of Chicago, and delivered by Lincoln's son, Tad. Richardson had them framed and displayed in his dining room for several years. Upon Richardson's death, the relics were then passed to his granddaughter Ella Gouverneur. She loaned them for exhibition to the Bushwick Avenue Congregational Church in 1929, which was profiled on p. 3 of the 11 February 1929 issue of The New York Times. They remained in the family for many years.

These gloves are illustrated on pp. 102-103 of Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt's history of the assassination and its aftermath, Twenty Days (1965).

Provenance:

Mary Todd Lincoln

Captain Benjamin Richardson, American collector of presidential memorabilia, gifted from above, thence by descent to

Ella T. Gouverneur (1866-1935), granddaughter of above

Theresa Osterhoudt (b. 1891), daughter of above (Osterhoudt photo credit in Kunhardt, p. 311)

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California

Exhibition:

The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America, at the Huntington Library, October 1993-August 1994

Blood on the Moon, at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, 19 April-16 October 2005

Literature:

Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt's history of the assassination and its aftermath, Twenty Days (1965), pp. 102-103, and 311

Appeared on p. 205 of Lincoln: An Intimate Portrait (Life Books, 2014)