Mary Todd Lincoln

Todd was born on December 13, 1818, in Lexington, Kentucky, as the fourth of seven children of Robert Smith Todd, a banker, and Elizabeth "Eliza" (Parker) Todd. and they had nine children together. There is conflicting evidence about Todd's relationship with her stepmother. Mary's paternal great-grandfather, David Levi Todd, was born in County Longford, Ireland, and immigrated through Pennsylvania to Kentucky. Another great-grandfather, Andrew Porter, was the son of an Irish immigrant to New Hampshire and later Pennsylvania. Her maternal great-great-grandfather Samuel McDowell was born in Scotland, and emigrated to Pennsylvania. Other Todd ancestors came from England. At an early age, Mary was sent to Madame Mentelle's finishing school, where the curriculum concentrated on French and literature. She learned to speak French fluently and studied dance, drama, music, and social graces. By age 20, she was regarded as witty and gregarious with a grasp of politics. Like her family, she was a Whig. Mary began living with her sister Elizabeth Porter Edwards in Springfield, Illinois, in October 1839. Elizabeth was married to Ninian W. Edwards, son of a former governor. He served as Mary's guardian. Mary was popular among the gentry of Springfield, and though she was courted by the rising young lawyer and Democratic Party politician Stephen A. Douglas and others, she chose Abraham Lincoln, a fellow Whig. ==Marriage and family==

Todd met Lincoln, then a struggling lawyer, at the house of her older sister Elizabeth Edwards. The two formed a connection due to their mutual interest in politics and were soon engaged. Lincoln fell in love with Matilda Edwards in the autumn of 1840, and this caused him to break his engagement to Mary. In the following weeks after their breakup, Lincoln went into a depression, and was described by his then business partner as "reduced and emaciated in his appearance". After a year and a half, the couple secretly rekindled their relationship and married on November 4, 1842. Todd was 23 and Lincoln was 33. Lincoln allegedly met Ninian on the street the day of their wedding and confessed his plan to marry the latter's sister-in-law, to which Ninian, feeling responsible for Todd, demanded they wed at his own house. Likewise, the bride did not tell her sister about her marriage until the day of, to which Elizabeth acquiesced. congestive heart failure, or tuberculosis) Robert and Tad (Thomas) survived to adulthood and the death of their father, and only Robert outlived his mother. File:Robert Todd Lincoln, three-quarter length portrait, seated.jpg|Robert Todd Lincoln, born 1843 File:Eddielincoln (cropped).jpg|Edward Baker Lincoln, born 1846 File:WILLIE.JPG|William Wallace Lincoln, born 1850 File:Tad Lincoln in uniform.jpg|Thomas Lincoln, born 1853 ==Lincoln's career and home life==

at Eighth and Jackson Streets in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln resided from 1844 until they left for the White House in 1861 While Lincoln pursued his increasingly successful career as a Springfield lawyer, Mary supervised their growing household. Their house, where they resided from 1844 until 1861, still stands in Springfield and has been designated the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. During Lincoln's years as an Illinois circuit lawyer, Mary was often left alone for months at a time to raise their children and run the household. Mary supported her husband socially and politically, not least when Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Mary cooked for Lincoln often during his presidency. Raised by a wealthy family, her cooking was simple, but satisfied Lincoln's tastes, which included imported oysters. ==First Lady of the United States==

by Currier and Ives shows Abraham Lincoln with Mary Lincoln and their sons, Robert and Thomas ("Tad") During her White House years, Mary Lincoln faced many personal difficulties generated by political divisions within the nation. Her family was from a border state where slavery was permitted. Several of her half-brothers served in the Confederate Army and were killed in action, and one brother served the Confederacy as a surgeon. Mary staunchly supported her husband in his quest to save the Union and was strictly loyal to his policies. Considered a "westerner" although she had grown up in the more refined Upper South city of Lexington, Mary worked hard to serve as her husband's First Lady in Washington, D.C., a political center dominated by eastern culture. Lincoln was regarded as the first "western" president, and critics described Mary's manners as coarse and pretentious. She had difficulty negotiating White House social responsibilities and rivalries, spoils-seeking solicitors, and baiting newspapers Mary suffered from severe headaches, described as migraines, throughout her adult life, as well as protracted depression. Her headaches seemed to become more frequent after she suffered a head injury in a carriage accident during her White House years. A history of mood swings, fierce temper, public outbursts throughout Lincoln's presidency, as well as excessive spending, has led some historians and psychologists to argue that Mary suffered from bipolar disorder. Another theory holds that Mary's manic and depressive episodes, as well as many of her physical symptoms, could be explained as manifestations of pernicious anemia. Mary Lincoln's grief over Willie's death was so devastating that she took to her bed for three weeks, so desolated that she could not attend his funeral or look after Tad. Mary was so distraught for many months that Lincoln had to employ a nurse to look after her. From time to time, she accompanied Lincoln on military visits to the field. Responsible for hosting many social functions, she has often been blamed by historians for spending too much money on the White House. ==Assassination of Abraham Lincoln==

on April 14, 1865, in the presidential booth at Ford's Theatre. Left to right: assassin John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Clara Harris, and Henry Rathbone As the American Civil War ended, Mrs. Lincoln expected to continue as the First Lady of a nation at peace. President Lincoln awoke the morning of April 14, 1865, in a pleasant mood. Robert E. Lee had surrendered several days before to Ulysses Grant, and now the President was awaiting word from North Carolina on the surrender of Joseph E. Johnston. The morning papers carried the announcement that the President and his wife would be attending the theater that evening. At one point, Mary developed a headache and was inclined to stay home, but Lincoln told her they must attend because newspapers had announced that he would. Mrs. Lincoln sat with her husband watching the comic play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre, along with their guests Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris. During the third act, Mr. Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln drew closer together, holding hands while enjoying the play. In the last conversation the Lincolns would ever have, Mary whispered to her husband, who was holding her hand, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" The president smiled and replied, "She won't think anything about it". At about 10:15 pm, President Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth. Mary was holding Abraham's hand when the shooting occurred. Lincoln, who had immediately lost consciousness, was held up in his rocking chair by a hysterical Mary. As Lincoln was carried out of the box by doctors, Mary composed herself briefly and gave Major Edwin Eliaphron Bedee the president's private papers from his pockets. Mrs. Lincoln accompanied her husband across the street to the Petersen House, where he was taken to a back bedroom and laid crosswise on the bed there, where Lincoln's Cabinet was summoned, except William Seward, who had been seriously attacked by Lewis Powell, just as Booth was about to carry out his assassination at Ford's Theater, several minutes earlier. Their oldest son, Robert, sat with Lincoln throughout the night and to the following morning, Saturday, April 15, 1865. Harris stated, "Poor Mrs. Lincoln, all through that dreadful night would look at me with horror & scream, "Oh! my husband's blood, my dear husband's blood... It was Henry's blood, not the president's, but explanations were pointless." At one point, Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, ordered Mary from the room as she was so unhinged with grief. and, as Dixon reported, "she again seated herself by the President, kissing him and calling him every endearing name." As he died, his breathing grew quieter, his face more calm. According to some accounts, at his last drawn breath, on the morning after the assassination, he smiled broadly and then expired. Historians, most notably author Lee Davis have emphasized Lincoln's peaceful appearance when and after he died: "It was the first time in four years, probably, that a peaceful expression crossed his face." Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Lincoln Administration, Maunsell Bradhurst Field wrote, "I had never seen upon the President's face an expression more genial and pleasing." The President's secretary, John Hay, said, "A look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn features". ==Later life==

William H. Mumler, though Mumler's photos are now known to be hoaxes After her husband's death, she received messages of condolence from all over the world, many of which she attempted to answer personally. Responding to Queen Victoria she wrote: I have received the letter which Your Majesty has had the kindness to write. I am deeply grateful for its expressions of tender sympathy, coming as they do, from a heart which from its own sorrow, can appreciate the intense grief I now endure. Victoria had suffered the loss of her husband, Prince Albert, four years earlier. As a widow, Mrs. Lincoln returned to Illinois and lived in Chicago with her sons. Her husband had left an estate of $80,000 (), which should have been enough to keep her in comfort, if not in style. In 1868, Mrs Lincoln, who had a lavish, unstable relationship with money, advertised in the New York World for aid and attempted to sell her personal effects at auction, which shocked the public. She had been born into slavery, purchased her freedom and that of her son, and become a successful businesswoman in Washington, D.C. Although this book provides valuable insight into the character and life of Mary Todd Lincoln, at the time, the former First Lady (and much of the public and press) regarded it as a breach of friendship and confidentiality. Keckley was widely criticized for her book, especially as her editor had published letters from Mary Lincoln to her. It has now been gratefully accepted by many historians and biographers, used to flesh out the President and First Lady's personalities behind the scenes in the Executive Mansion, and used as the basis for several motion pictures and TV mini-series during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In an act approved by a low margin on July 14, 1870, the United States Congress granted Mrs. Lincoln a life pension of $3,000 a year ($ in dollars). Mary had lobbied hard for such a pension, writing numerous letters to Congress and urging patrons such as Simon Cameron and Joseph Seligman At the time, a pension was unusual for widows of presidents, and Mary Lincoln had alienated many congressmen, making it difficult for her to gain Congress's approval. Tad's death in July 1871, following the deaths of two of her other sons and her husband, brought on an overpowering grief and depression. In 1872, she went to spiritualist photographer William H. Mumler, who produced a photograph of her that appears to faintly show Lincoln's ghost behind her, now housed at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The College of Psychic Studies, referencing notes belonging to William Stainton Moses, claims that the photo was taken in the early 1870s, that Lincoln had assumed the name of 'Mrs. Lindall', and that Lincoln had to be encouraged by Mumler's wife to identify her husband in the photo. P.T. Barnum, testifying against Mumler in his eventual fraud trial, presented a photo featuring himself with the 'ghost' of Abraham Lincoln, demonstrating for the court how easy it was to make one of Mumler's images. The image is recognized now as a hoax created via double exposure by inserting a previously prepared positive glass plate featuring the image of the deceased into the camera in front of an unused sensitive glass plate. After the court proceedings, she was so despondent that she attempted suicide. She went to several pharmacies and ordered enough laudanum to kill herself, but an alert pharmacist frustrated her attempts and finally gave her a placebo. Three months after being committed to Bellevue Place, she devised her escape: She smuggled letters to her lawyer, James B. Bradwell, and his wife, Myra Bradwell, who was not only her friend but also a feminist lawyer. She also wrote to the editor of the Chicago Times. Soon, the public embarrassments that Robert had hoped to avoid were looming, and his character and motives were in question as he controlled his mother's finances. The director of Bellevue at Mary's trial had assured the jury she would benefit from treatment at his facility. In the face of potentially damaging publicity, he declared her well enough to go to Springfield to live with her sister Elizabeth as she desired. Mary Lincoln was released into the custody of her sister in Springfield. In 1876, she was declared competent to manage her own affairs. The earlier committal proceedings had resulted in Mary being profoundly estranged from her son Robert, and they did not see each other again until shortly before her death. Congress eventually granted the increase, along with an additional monetary gift. During the early 1880s, Mary Lincoln was confined to the Springfield, Illinois, residence of her sister Elizabeth Edwards. Death at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, next to her sons On July 15, 1882, exactly eleven years after her youngest son died, Mary collapsed at her sister's home, lapsed into a coma, and died the next morning of a stroke at age 63. Her funeral service was held at First Presbyterian Church in Springfield. ==In popular culture==

Biographies have been written about Mary Lincoln as well as her husband. Barbara Hambly's ''The Emancipator's Wife'' (2005) is considered a well-researched historical novel that provides context for her use of over-the-counter drugs containing alcohol and opium, which were frequently given to women of her era. Janis Cooke Newman's historical novel Mary: Mrs. A. Lincoln (2007), in which Mary tells her own story after incarceration in the asylum in an effort to maintain and prove her sanity, is considered by Mary's recent biographer, Jean H. Baker, to be 'close to life' in its depiction of Mary Lincoln's life. The grief experienced through her widowhood is a theme of Andrew Holleran's 2006 novel, Grief. Another historical novel in which Mary Todd Lincoln is depicted is Courting Mr. Lincoln (2019) by Louis Bayard, centering on Lincoln's relationships with Mary Todd and Joshua Fry Speed, Abraham Lincoln's good friend, in Springfield from 1839 to 1842. Mary Lincoln has been portrayed by several actresses in film, including Kay Hammond in Abraham Lincoln (1930) directed by D.W. Griffith; Marjorie Weaver in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) directed by John Ford; Ruth Gordon in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940); Julie Harris in The Last of Mrs. Lincoln, a 1976 television adaptation of the stage play; Mary Tyler Moore in the 1988 television mini-series Lincoln; Donna Murphy in the 1998 movie The Day Lincoln Was Shot; Sally Field in Steven Spielberg's 2012 film Lincoln; Penelope Ann Miller in Saving Lincoln (2012); and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012), set during the American Civil War. Mezzo-soprano Elaine Bonazzi portrayed Mary in Thomas Pasatieri's Emmy Award winning opera The Trial of Mary Lincoln in 1972. In 1955, Vivi Janiss played the historical Mary Todd Lincoln in "How Chance Made Lincoln President" in the anthology television series, ''TV Reader's Digest''. Richard Gaines was cast as Abraham Lincoln, and Ken Hardison played their son, Robert Todd Lincoln. In 2005, Sufjan Stevens referenced Mary Todd Lincoln in the instrumental track "A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, but for Very Good Reasons" from his album Illinois, which is themed around the state where she resided the majority of her life. The comedic stage play Oh, Mary! opened on Broadway in July 2024, having transferred from its critically acclaimed off-Broadway run. The satirical plot by American comedian Cole Escola parodies the Lincolns in the weeks prior to the president's assassination, portraying Mary Todd as an unhappy alcoholic desperate to be a cabaret performer. Escola won Best Actor in a Play at the 78th Tony Awards for spoofing Mary Todd. The play Mrs. President by John Ransom Phillips centers on Mary Todd's interaction with the photographer Matthew Brady. Mary Todd Lincoln was portrayed by Lili Taylor in the 2024 Apple TV+ miniseries series Manhunt. ==Family==

Her sister Elizabeth Todd married Ninian Edwards Jr., the son of the Illinois Governor Ninian Edwards. Their daughter Julia Edwards married Edward L. Baker Jr., editor of the Illinois State Journal and son of Edward L. Baker Sr. Their daughter, Mary Todd Lincoln's grandniece Mary Edwards Brown, served as custodian of the Lincoln Homestead, as did her own daughter. Mary's half-sister Emilie Todd married Benjamin Hardin Helm, CSA general and son of the Kentucky Governor John L. Helm. Another of her half-sisters, Elodie Todd, married CSA Brig. General Nathaniel H. R. Dawson, later the third U.S. Commissioner of Education. One of Mary Todd's cousins was Dakota Territory Congressman/US General John Blair Smith Todd. ==Regard by historians==

Historians have regarded Lincoln poorly as a first lady, seeing her as meddling and disruptive. Lincoln's poor regard is due to the perception of Lincoln as having had psychological conditions that made the life of President Lincoln more difficult. Since 1982, Siena College Research Institute has periodically conducted surveys asking historians to assess American first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president. In the first four surveys, Lincoln was ranked in the lowest quartile. However, in the fifth survey (conducted in 2020), Lincoln's regard had risen enough to place her in the third quartile. Lincoln's rise in regard from being ranked as the worst first lady in the first survey to the third quartile in 2020 is perhaps due to an increase in writing on her. • 29th-best of 40 in 2020 In the 2008 Siena Research Institute survey, Lincoln was ranked the lowest in four of the ten criteria: value to the country, accomplishments, leadership, and public image. In the 2014 survey, Lincoln and her husband were ranked the 7th-highest out of 39 first couples in terms of being a "power couple". ==See also==