Scope and Content Note
The papers of the Robert Todd Lincoln family span the years 1864-1938, with the bulk of the material dating from 1918 to 1927. Part I of the collection consists of correspondence; a printed volume presented by Lincoln to James W. Lee; a printed volume presented by Julius G. Rathbun to Lincoln; an autobiographical sketch of Robert Todd Lincoln; and commissions for Lincoln as assistant adjutant general, secretary of war, and minister to Great Britain. Some correspondence and documents in Part I appear only as negative or positive photocopies or as handwritten or typewritten transcripts of the originals. Of interest are letters seeking commissions sent to Lincoln in his capacity as secretary of war, one of which was penned by William McKinley.
Part II consists of correspondence, legal and financial papers, newspaper clippings, a manuscript, receipts, photographs, and house plans relating to Robert Todd Lincoln, his wife Mary Harlan Lincoln, his two daughters, Mary Lincoln Isham and Jessie Lincoln Beckwith Johnson Randolph, his mother Mary Todd Lincoln, and his father Abraham Lincoln, and kept at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Frost & Towers. The papers are organized in three categories: numbered files, unnumbered files, and miscellany with similar types of material in all three. The numbered files were devised by the attorneys at Frost & Towers. The unnumbered files are arranged alphabetically by subject or name of person.
A vast majority of the papers pertain to financial matters such as income tax preparation and the management of Robert Todd Lincoln’s investments as well as the trust accounts for his daughters and grandchildren. There is also a wide array of receipts for utility bills, personal and real estate taxes, stocks and bonds, landscaping, coal deliveries, and charitable contributions.
Included in the papers are items relating to the homes of Robert Todd Lincoln. After selling his home in Chicago, Lincoln purchased a house in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., in 1917. Located at 3014 N Street, it became his residence for half of every year. Papers pertaining to this home include files on its purchase and history, a plat, the light circuitry layout, and the floor plans as well as receipts and plans for alterations to the structure and the installation of a burglar alarm. Of interest are the furnishing receipts that contain the name of Grace Lincoln Temple, a noted interior decorator at the time. Files for the Lincoln summer home, Hildene, located in Manchester, Vermont, contain floor plans, a key list, landscaping and work receipts, and insurance policies. It was to travel between these two homes that the Lincoln family requested the use of personal railway cars.
Mary Todd Lincoln’s papers appear in the unnumbered files and are comprised of photographic and handwritten copies of her correspondence and will; photostatic copies of legal documents; and the sale to Mary Harlan Lincoln by Myra Helmer Pritchard of her manuscript, “The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln’s Widow: As Revealed by Her Own Letters,” and of original Mary Todd Lincoln letters. The purchase of the Mary Todd Lincoln material from Pritchard was handled for Mary Harlan Lincoln by her attorney Frederic N. Towers, and it is from his files that the Mary Todd Lincoln material originated. The original letters were apparently destroyed. The copies cover Mary Todd Lincoln’s confinement in 1875 at the private sanitarium of Bellevue, in Batavia, Illinois, and after her release from 1876 to 1878. Correspondents include Myra Bradwell, James B. Bradwell, Elizabeth Todd Edwards, Richard J. Patterson, and Robert Todd Lincoln. The numbered files also contain an outline for a book on Mary Todd Lincoln prepared by Katherine Helm.
Jason Emerson in his article, “The Madness of Mary Lincoln,” in the June/July 2006 issue of the American Heritage Magazinecites some of the Mary Todd Lincoln papers in this collection, but it is not an exact listing.
Items concerning Abraham Lincoln reside in both the numbered and unnumbered files of these papers. Included in the numbered files are correspondence about his collection at the Library of Congress; the portrait by G. P. A. Healy; a replica of his statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in London; a list of magazine articles; newspaper articles; a file on Thomas Proctor; an inventory of relics in storage; and correspondence with the Smithsonian Institution about the clothing Lincoln was wearing at the time of his death. Further information is located in the correspondence of Robert Todd Lincoln in the unnumbered file.
In the correspondence of Mary Harlan Lincoln in the unnumbered file, she discusses the removal of the remains of her son Abraham Lincoln, Jr., “Jack,” from the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield, Illinois, to Arlington Cemetery to accompany his father. In the numbered files is correspondence relating to the monument for Robert Todd Lincoln in the cemetery. Family correspondence can be found in the numbered files between Robert Todd Lincoln and his cousin Emily Todd Helm and in the files relating to Jessie Lincoln Beckwith Johnson Randolph.
An addition to Part II contains photocopies of correspondence to and from Frederic N. Towers that is related to the Mary Harlan Lincoln and Myra Helmer Pritchard material in the unnumbered files. Included also is a 1908 letter from Robert Todd Lincoln to A. Wakeman concerning the proposed publication of letters written by Mary Todd Lincoln, the location of Abraham Lincoln’s original draft of the Gettysburg Address, and the Bible used in his second inauguration.