A new exhibit at the Frazier History Museum in Louisville, Kentucky includes documents that recall a turbulent chapter in the post-Washington life of Mary Todd Lincoln.
This is the museum's first public display of the papers related to the former first lady’s commitment to an Illinois mental institution, an action initiated by her son.
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Piece Description
A new exhibit at the Frazier History Museum in Louisville, Kentucky includes documents that recall a turbulent chapter in the post-Washington life of Mary Todd Lincoln.
This is the museum's first public display of the papers related to the former first lady’s commitment to an Illinois mental institution, an action initiated by her son.
Transcript
A new exhibit at the Frazier History Museum in Louisville, Kentucky includes documents that recall a turbulent chapter in the post-Washington life of Mary Todd Lincoln.
As Rick Howlett reports, this is the first public display of the papers
related to the former first lady’s commitment to an Illinois mental institution, an
action initiated by her son.
The papers are displayed alongside Civil War-era artifacts.
Curator of Collections Kelly Williams Wilkerson says they were purchased at auction last year
from descendants of the family that once owned Bellevue Place, the sanitarium where Mary Todd
Lincoln was sent for treatment.
“We have a court proceeding document, where Mary Todd was legally declared insane,
And that gives way to a warrant that we have for her arrest and commitment at Bellevue
Place. And we also have a ledger f...
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