Contents of Abraham Lincoln's pockets when assassinated

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Last edited Fri Apr 14, 2017, 12:12 PM - Edit history (3)

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Michael Beschloss? @BeschlossDC
Contents of Abraham Lincoln's pockets when assassinated (tomorrow 1865)--not shown to public for 111 years: #LOC


twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/852682417894813697

LOC:

- The items consist of one pair of gold-rimmed spectacles with sliging temples and with one of the bows mended with string; one pair of folding spectacles in a silver case; an ivory pocket knife with silver mounting; a watch fob of gold-bearing quartz, mounted in gold; an oversize white Irish linen handkerchief with "A. Lincoln" embroidered in red cross-stitch; a sleeve button with a gold initial "L" on dark blue enamel; and a brown leather wallet, including a pencil, lined in purple silk with compartments for notes, U.S. currency, and railroad tickets. The wallet held a Confederate five-dollar bill and eight newspaper clippings. The clippings were from papers printed immediately before Lincoln's death, containing complimentary remarks about him written during his campaign for reelection to the Presidency. The Confederate five-dollar bill may have been acquired as a souvenir when Lincoln visited Petersburg and Richmond earlier in the month.

Link to tweet

[Ilsa]

1. Really cool.

I'm waiting for a trumper to comment that the leather pouch/wallet looks like it has velcro or another anachronism. Or that he was investing in confederate states' money.

[Mosby]

2. I wonder what kind of pocketknife that is?

Looks like a congress or stockman pattern.

[bigtree]

3. 'Congress'

from The Knife Point

The knife is 9 cm. long (or 19 cm. when fully opened) and 1.1 wide. It has six blades, one major (3 x 1 cm.) on each side occupying the center position, flanked by two smaller blades (ranging between 4 and 4.2 cm. long and .5 and .5 cm. wide). The base of each blade carries the legend: “William Gilchrist’s / Celebrated / Razor Steel” on one side and the initials “W.G.” on the opposite. (The next faces the same direction on each of the three blades at each end, but this is in the opposite direction in respect to the ends themselves.) There are no other identifying initials or symbols to be found on the knife.

Eric Frazier
Reference Librarian
Rare Books and Special Collections Division
Library of Congress

Ironically, this his style of knife is called a Congress. The scales of the knife are Ivory. William Gilchrist was an American importer who had the knives made for him in Europe.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. another reason DU is so amazing..thanks to folks like you.

I would have never known anything about that knife, till now. .

[Mosby]

6. interesting, thx.

A six blade congress is pretty rare.

I found a reproduction, I really like that thin, reameresque blade.

http://releedvd.com/lincoln_pocket_knife

[Tommy_Carcetti]

5. The five dollar bill is....ironic. nt

[MineralMan]

7. Good. A pocket knife.

I've carried one since I was 10 years old. Not the Congress pattern, like Lincolns, but a three-bladed stockman pattern. At one time, every man had a pocketknife in his pocket. Not any longer, though. Mine gets used daily, often to assist someone who doesn't have a knife and needs to cut something.

[SCantiGOP]

8. Just like my Dad

He carried a similar looking white pocket knife his whole life. I got it after he died, but since I travel a good deal by air I have it put away.

[MineralMan]

10. When I travel, I still take my pocketknife with me.

I just put it in a zippered pocket in my checked bag before I head to the airport. When I arrive, I take it out and put it back in my pocket. It's a tool I try always to have with me.

These days, you also have to shed it when entering courthouses and even professional sports arenas. I drop mine in the center console of my car after parking when I'm going to one of those places.

I wouldn't be without it.

[SCantiGOP]

14. Ha! checked your profile

I knew from this discussion you were an old man. I, on the other hand, am a youthful 67.

I've enjoyed your posts over the years. We usually seem pretty much in sync.

[MineralMan]

15. I am an old man, indeed.

However, both of my parents are still alive at age 94. They remind me that I'm still a young whippersnapper from time to time.

[SCantiGOP]

24. My doctor told me

that there are a lot of things you can do to preserve your health or wreck your health, but if you want to live a long time the one best thing to do is to have parents who live a long time.

[notdarkyet]

11. My husband always carried one. He had many when he died and over the years i

Have given several away,like to my brother, son in law, etc I still have a Barlow and an ivory handle multi blade. Had an old timer gave to my brother. He always carries it. My husband also collected lighters, including an old united airlines zippo.

[notdarkyet]

13. Also a Swiss army with lots of tools that I carry. Always comes in handy.

[TheBlackAdder]

9. His pockets couldn't hold his ax, hence, it's missing from the photo.

.





.

[dalton99a]

12. +1

[kytngirl]

16. I would like to know

If the items were given to the family and THEN donated by the family or they were just kept by the government?

I don't know, for some reason everything the government did/does/will do is suspect to me now. I never felt this way before, not even when GWB was in office and I knew he was going to war behind a lie manufactured by Darth Chaney.

[PoliticAverse]

17. No credit cards? n/t

[KittyWampus]

18. or Smart phone.

[PoliticAverse]

19. Lincoln wasn't a big fan of the Internet...

[KittyWampus]

20. This and the photo of Lincoln with the ax makes this thread nearly complete.

[bigtree]

23. I dunno

In 1862, after President Abraham Lincoln appointed him secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton penned a letter to the president requesting sweeping powers, which would include total control of the telegraph lines. By rerouting those lines through his office, Stanton would keep tabs on vast amounts of communication, journalistic, governmental and personal. On the back of Stanton’s letter Lincoln scribbled his approval: “The Secretary of War has my authority to exercise his discretion in the matter within mentioned.”

I came across this letter in the 1990s in the Library of Congress while researching Stanton’s wartime efforts to control the press, which included censorship, intimidation and extrajudicial arrests of reporters. On the same day he received control of the telegraphs, Stanton put an assistant secretary in charge of two areas: press relations and the newly formed secret police. Stanton ultimately had dozens of newspapermen arrested on questionable charges. Within Stanton’s first month in office, a reporter for The New York Herald, who had insisted that he be given news ahead of other reporters, was arrested as a spy.

Having the telegraph lines running through Stanton’s office made his department the nexus of war information; Lincoln visited regularly to get the latest on the war. Stanton collected news from generals, telegraph operators and reporters. He had a journalist’s love of breaking the story and an autocrat’s obsession with information control. He used his power over the telegraphs to influence what journalists did or didn’t publish. In 1862, the House Judiciary Committee took up the question of “telegraphic censorship” and called for restraint on the part of the administration’s censors.

read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/opinion/lincolns-surveillance-state.html

[UTUSN]

21. I want the watch fob.

[vkkv]

22. Trump's pockets are full of I.O.U.s and

golf tees.

[druidity33]

25. As a leatherworker

i'd love to see more detailed pictures of this wallet(?). Is that a metal rim on the side or is that wedges of paper, is it fastened by snap? An accordian pouch? Is the front of the piece carved? Does that say RRTickets?

Ah, history...

K&R

[aidbo]

26. If you go thru the link you can get better pics. It does indeed say RR tickets. Beautiful wallet.

[bigtree]

27. »