Lincoln's Pockets
Contents of Lincoln's Pockets at Assassination
So What?
Pocket Knife
What does this say about Lincoln?
Confederate $5 bill
Why would Lincoln have a Confederate $5 bill in his pocket?
Monogrammed Hanky
Do you still see these today? How have we changed as a society over time?
Newspaper Clipping
Lincoln must have clipped this newspaper article; it talks about Lincoln and abolition. Lincoln probably cared (or was at least interested) in what others thought about him and his policies.
Wallet
I suppose all guys carried a wallet back then, just like now. This artifact really doesn't tell me anything about Lincoln.
Newspaper Clipping
This is another clipping Lincoln carried with him. Maybe this one made him feel good--at a concert, people cheered Lincoln when a speaker compared him to the great Andrew Jackson preserving the Union.
Pocket Watch Fob
First of all, what is a pocket watch? Second, what is a fob? It was a little dangling thing that hung from the chain of the pocket watch.
Glasses
Look at the string holding the glasses together. What does this say about Lincoln?
Eye Glass Cleaner
Notice the condition of the eye glass cleaner.
So What???
- Pocket Knife - Well, first, he wouldn't be able to get through security at the White House today with this in his pocket! I think that this pocket knife shows how practical Lincoln was a a man. He was from rural America, and men like that back then carried pocket knives. (So does my grandpa, for the record--he couldn't clear security at the White House, either).
- Confederate $5 bill - My first thought was, "Why in the world would Lincoln carry Confederate money. I Googled it and found out that Lincoln visited Richmond, Virginia about a week before his assassination. Maybe he kept and carried the Confederate $5 as a reminder of the Union victory.
- I don't think anyone in my family owns a handkerchief except my grandpa. Now we use disposable Kleenex, which seems a little cleaner than washing your snotty hankies, but its also a lot more wasteful. I think of people who monogram their stuff as being stuffy, but I don't think Lincoln was stuffy--so this just must be what people did back then.
- President Lincoln had several newspaper clippings in his wallet when he was assassinated. One that I read talked about radicals being critical of him, and the other one praised him and talked about a crowd cheering when he was compared to Andrew Jackson. At first I thought this was weird because Jackson was a "southerner" but then I remembered the Nullification Crisis when Jackson saved the Union, so that makes more sense that they might compare them.
- Pocket watch fob - This was hard. I had to look up the word "fob." According to Wikipedia, a fob is a medallion or ornament attached to a pocket watch to assist in handling the watch. This is like the wallet and the eye glass cleaner...I don't know that I really learn anything about Lincoln, but it is interesting because it is something nobody uses or has anymore.
- Glasses - If you look closely at the picture of Lincoln's glasses, you'll notice a little string holding the arm to the frames. This made me smile because I think Lincoln was probably a simple problem solving sort of guy. He could probably fix anything with grit, spit, and a little bit of duck tape.