THE LINCOLN MUSEUM (continued)

Special Collections

Several cases are devoted to special collections of objects pertaining to Lincoln. In one of the cases are several pieces of Haviland chinaware of the State Dining Room set used at the White House during Lincoln's administration. Each piece has a wide border of Solferino purple, outlined in gold, beaded edges, and the United States Coat-of-Arms on the side or at the center.

Another case contains the clothes worn by Lincoln the night he was assassinated. These consist of his overcoat, frock coat, vest, trousers, and black silk stock or cravat. In the quilted lining of the overcoat is an embossed figure of an eagle holding in its mouth two festoons, on which are the words "One Country, One Destiny."The clothes were donated to the museum by the United States Capitol Historical Society, which purchased them from Mrs. J. Marvin Smith of Marion, S.C. Mrs. Smith is the granddaughter of Alphonse Donn, one of President Lincoln's doorkeepers, who was given the suit and overcoat by Mrs. Lincoln shortly after the assassination. Funds for the purchase of the clothes were provided by Universal Oil Products, Bostrom Division, of Illinois and Wisconsin, and by the American Trucking Association Foundation.

Lincoln's boots, on display with the clothes, were presented to the museum in 1947 by Miss Ruth Hatch, whose father, Justin H. Hatch, had received them from William T. Clark. Clark, at the time of the assassination, occupied the room in which Lincoln died and retained the boots, left behind when the President's body was removed from the Petersen House on the morning of April 15.

Plaster casts of the hands and life mask of Lincoln, the originals of which were made by Leonard Volk of Chicago in 1860, are prominently displayed in the center section of the museum.