Film, Video What was in Lincoln's pockets?
About this Item
- Title
- What was in Lincoln's pockets?
- Contributor Names
- Evans, Clark (Curator)
- Subject Headings
- - Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
- - Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Assassination
- - Motion Pictures
- Genre
- Motion Pictures
- Notes
- - When Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865, he was carrying two pairs of spectacles and a lens polisher, a pocketknife, a watch fob, a linen handkerchief, a brown leather wallet containing a five-dollar Confederate note, and eight newspaper clippings, including several favorable to the president and his policies. Given to his son Robert Todd upon Lincoln's death, these everyday items, which through association with tragedy had become like relics, were kept in the Lincoln family for more than seventy years. Because it is quite unusual for the Library to keep personal artifacts among its holdings, they were not put on display until 1976 when then Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin thought their exposure would humanize a man who had become "mythologically engulfed."
- - Presented in Partnership with HISTORY
- Repository
- Rare Book And Special Collections Division
- Online Format
- video
Part of
Format
Contributors
Languages
Subjects
Featured in
- Lincoln's Birthday … And First Inauguration
- The History Channel at the Library
- "Now He Belongs to the Ages" - With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition
- November 1863–April 1865 - The Civil War in America
- Meet the Curators | Articles and Essays | Hidden Treasures at the Library of Congress | Digital Collections
Rights & Access
Cite This Item
More Films, Videos like this
-
Film, VideoThe Book Lincoln and Obama Have In Common
- Contributor: Evans, Clark
-
Film, VideoWatch a President Age
- Contributor: Evans, Clark
-
Film, VideoHow a President Learned to Write
- Contributor: Evans, Clark
-
Film, VideoThe Most Wanted Man in America
- Contributor: Evans, Clark
-
Film, Video273 Words to a New America
- Contributor: Sellers, John R.