What was in Lincoln's pockets?

spectacles a pocketknife and Confederate cash I've been lucky enough to see a number of incredible objects here at the Library of Congress this collection blows me away tell us what we're looking at right here what we have here are the contents of President Lincoln's pockets the night of his assassination at Ford's Theater April the 14th 1865 these are the actual things that were in the man's pockets when he was assassinated yes yes absolutely incredible let's talk through what Charlie's objects are one by one first of all he had a linen handkerchief by the way with a lincoln stenciled in red he was carrying two pairs of glasses that my pleasure yes is this larger pair which by the way has a string repair at the bow that was put there by mr. Lincoln himself and he had a small folding pair of glasses as well on his person and he had a pocketknife that evening it's a multi-blade there's actually six blades on this pocketknife it's silver and of course has an ivory casing and a watch fob of course in those days no wristwatch for men you had a pocket watch and of course this would be attached to a chain and then also of course to his watch it's it's made of quartz with with gold encasing the only money on his person that evening Jamie was a Confederate five dollar bill he had no Union money on his person Abraham Lincoln was carrying a Confederate fiver yes what can possibly be the reason for that well we don't know with 100% certainty but just a few days earlier Richmond had fallen and Lincoln did actually travel to Richmond and this was likely passed onto him as a souvenir of the fall of Richmond precisely you know we've looked at a number of different Lincoln objects here in our visit and throughout them struck most of all by how unspecial they are in a way they're really very everyday they're they're just what a normal man would have in his pocket and invariably the most favorite of all objects within the library's collections are the contents of mr. Lincoln's pockets it's it's really very touching in its way indeed bark Evans head of reference services in the rare book and special collections division Library of Congress you

Channel: Library of Congress

Views: 338,294

Rating: 4.8806171 out of 5

Keywords: library, congress, history, lincoln

Id: qnux4tPiNMI

Length: 2min 21sec (141 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 26 2010