Model looks

Many people have remarked that 21-year-old Lewis Powell was a "hottie." Unfortunately, he was also a felon. Can you pick him out from the contemporary fashion models above? (Hint: He's the one in the 19th c. handcuffs.) Powell a.k.a. Paine or Payne (1844-1865) was one of the 4 Americans convicted of conspiring in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The photograph in question (2nd image) was one of several taken by Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner 3 months before Powell's execution by hanging. But as with today's photographers, Gardner seems to have had a knack for capturing his subject at the most flattering angle. You can judge from the 6th image on this page, but Powell may not have been "model material." In particular, his face was slightly disfigured as the result of being kicked by a mule at the age of 12. The accident knocked out a molar and broke his jaw, causing it to protrude on the left side.

Oddly enough, historians didn't know what happened to Powell's remains until about 8 years ago. His body - unclaimed by his family - was buried in 1869, but the cemetery was defunct by the mid-1870's, with no record of Powell's reinterment elsewhere. In 1992, his skull (13th image here) resurfaced at the Smithsonian Institution. After it was authenticated by the FBI, the skull was buried next to his mother's grave in Florida.

A shout-out to Shorpy for the amazing number of inspiring quality images on that site!

Robert Todd Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln did not have a lot of time to get to know his 1st-born son Robert Todd (1843-1926), but the young man (1st image), a 21-year-old captain in the Union Army at the time, was at the White house when the president was shot and by his father's deathbed - and weeping openly - when he died of his assassin's bullet. Sixteen years later, he was on the platform at the train station in Washington, D.C., and witnessed the fatal shot that felled President James A. Garfield (3rd image) in 1881. Two decades after that, Robert was present at (but not eyewitness to) the assassination of President William McKinley (4th image) at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, in 1901. At that point, he commented about invitations to presidential events, "No, I'm not going, and they'd better not ask me, because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present." He did, however, attend the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922, which was survived by Presidents Warren G. Harding and William Howard Taft. Even stranger still is a coincidence that occurred prior to President Lincoln's assassination. In 1864 or 1865, Robert almost fell onto a train track in Jersey City, New Jersey, but was held back by none other than Edwin Booth (2nd image), the brother of the man who would soon kill his father. Robert later recalled, "The platform was about the height of the car floor, and there was of course a narrow space between the platform and the car body. There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn. In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was twisted off my feet, and had dropped somewhat, with feet downward, into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform." Robert recognized Edwin, a well-known actor like his father and older brother, and thanked him by name, but it was months before Edwin knew it was Robert's life he had saved.

Willie Lincoln

William Wallace (1850-1862) was his father's favorite. Abraham and Mary Lincoln had already lost one child, Edward Baker (1846-1850), by the time he was born. Willie and his father were often seen hand in hand, and the 2 took a trip to Chicago that the boy described in a letter to a friend (2nd image). Lincoln never had much time to bond with his oldest son Robert Todd (1843-1926), but felt that Willie had a mind like his own. The child was considered intelligent, mature, generous, and kind-hearted by those who knew him, although he and his younger brother Tad (Thomas Lincoln, 1853-1871) did have a mischievous streak, and were allowed to have the run of Lincoln's law office and the White House. The boys (pictured in the 2nd image with their uncle Lockwood Todd in 1861) were encouraged to talk, dance, and recite verse. Willie even penned his own poem upon the death of family friend Col. Edward D. Baker (1811-1861) that read in part:

His voice is silent in the hall,
Which oft his presence grac’d.
No more he’ll hear the loud acclaim
Which rang from place to place.

Soon, those words were true of Willie himself, who was eulogized on February 24, 1862:

"The beloved youth, whose death we now and here lament, was a child of bright intelligence and of peculiar promise. He possessed many excellent qualities of mind and heart, which greatly endeared him, not only to the family circle of which he was a member, but to his youthful companions, and to all his acquaintances and friends. His mind was active, inquisitive, and conscientious; his disposition was amiable and affectionate; his impulses were kind and generous; and his words and manners were gentle and attractive. It is easy to see how a child, thus endowed, would, in the course of eleven years, entwine himself around the hearts of those who knew him best."

Both parents were devastated when they lost Willie to typhoid fever at the age of 13. Mary was unable to attend his funeral and withdrew from the public for months. The president wept and often dreamed about his son. A notice of Willie's death in Harper's Weekly said simply that "Mr. Lincoln feels his loss very deeply." That was an understatement. While Willie's mother looked beyond the grave to spiritualism for comfort, his father had his embalmed body exhumed twice so he could look at and hold him again.

The play that night

The play Our American Cousin was produced by American actress Laura Keene (1826-1873) and premiered in 1858 at her theater in New York. It was a farcical comedy written by Tom Taylor (1817-1880) about awkward American Asa Trenchard (played by Harry Hawk) meeting his aristocratic relatives when he goes to England to claim an inheritance. Its most famous performance came 7 years later on the night of April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. The dialog just before the fateful moment follows:

Asa: You crave affection, you do. Now, I've no fortunes, but I'm spilling over with affections, which I'm ready to pour out all over you, like apple sass, over roast pork.
Mrs. M: Mr. Trenchard, will you please recollect that you are addressing my daughter, and in my presence.
Asa: Yes I'm offering her my heart and hand just as she wants them, with nothing in 'em.
Mrs. M: Augusta, dear, to your room.
Augusta: Yes Ma, the nasty beast.
Mrs. M: I am aware, Mr. Trenchard, that you are not used to the manners of good society, and that, alone, will excuse the impertinence of which you have been guilty.
Asa: Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal - you sockdologizing old man-trap.

Loud laughter erupted, as he knew it would, when assassin John Wilkes Booth entered the state box at the theater and fired his single-shot pistol into the back of the president's head. The performance, which had stopped briefly after 8:45pm to honor Lincoln's arrival, came to an abrupt halt at 10:15pm, and Keene - who was poised to take the stage - is said to have rushed to the president's box and cradled his head in her lap.

After the assassination, the theater was closed and its owner briefly imprisoned until he could be cleared of complicity. Our American Cousin, however, continued in popularity and one of its characters, Lord Dundreary, featured in future spin-offs and added a new word to the language - a word now as obscure as "sockdologizing."

Last to see Lincoln

This man, who died the year I was born, was the last person alive to have viewed the face of American president Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). Fleetwood Lindley (pictured in 1963 and as a young boy) remembered the day clearly and recounted it many times.

When Lincoln's sarcophagus was to be permanently interred in a newly-built tomb in Springfield, Illinois, in 1901, Lindley's father – a friend of the president and one of a team of men who had taken it upon themselves to safeguard his remains after they had almost been stolen – pulled the 13-year-old boy out of school with instructions to ride his bicycle quickly and secretly to Oak Ridge Cemetery. Lindley hurried to the tomb and was ushered into a chamber that contained 22 people, including several members of the so-called Guard of Honor. The room contained a fan, a lamp, and the exhumed casket on a pair of sawhorses. The windows had been covered over so that no one could see inside. The same two plumbers who had sealed the casket in 1884 used chisels to reopen it, releasing a pungent, choking smell. Lincoln's face was revealed, and Linwood realized at the time that it was a lifetime experience. White chalk had been applied by an embalmer to the president's dark brown face, the headrest had fallen so that his neck was thrown back, and his eyebrows were missing, but the mole on his cheek and the coarse black hair were easily recognizable. Though his clothing had mildewed, Lincoln was dressed elegantly in a black broadcloth suit, a small black bow tie, and a pair of kid gloves. The casket lid was resoldered and Linwood was allowed to hold one of the leather straps as it was lowered beneath the tomb floor and sealed with concrete.

Lindley died at the age of 75 and was buried in the same cemetery as Lincoln's tomb. He had told his story in person to California professor Ronald Rietveld - who had been a boy of about the same age when he discovered the only existing photograph of Lincoln in his casket.

Follow-ups

Follow-ups 12/9/09 Reader Megan brought this to my attention: a mutant parakeet - the opposite of the bald parrot pictured in this post! And just for good measure, here are a few more oddities: birds in sweaters (scroll down), diapers, a flight harness, and fancy dress.

Hermits - 2 scenarios 12/8/09 An unidentified couple from Indiana have been selected from 250 individuals or families who offered to adopt 2 pugs - Harry and Sally - who had fed on the flesh of their owner after he died.

Happy Thanksgiving! 11/26/09 I mentioned in an e-mail to my previous next-door neighbor Steve that we were going to save ourselves the trouble and order a boxed turkey dinner from the local grocery store this year, and I just have to share his response: "I hear them kind of turkeys are the ones that died in the truck - the brown part of the skin is really broom marks." When I told him we were doing the same thing for Christmas, he responded, "Christmas boxed turkeys are the ones that the homeless shelters rejected on Thanksgiving for smelling worse than the people there to eat them." I hope that doesn't offend anyone. It left me giggling!

Docking cow tails 10/27/09 A jumping cow made the news in Blagdon, Somerset, U.K. In news somewhat related to this post, the RSPCA reports that a "caller was distressed about a 'tumour' hanging off the back of a sheep. When an inspector attended, he found the 'tumour' was, in fact, a tail."

Shackleton 10/28/09 Word of another treasure found in an Antarctic hut - this time the oldest supply of Kiwi butter found near a shelter of Robert F. Scott.

Dinosaur eggs 10/3/09 Every new dinosaur discovery is said to threaten the current knowledge of paleontology. Here's another discovery that promises to "shake the dinosaur family tree."

Pig butchering 9/1/09 Investigations by the U.S.D.A. are underway in Florida to root out unlicensed slaughterhouses.

Human hybrids 8/22/09 Like the artist of this procative sculpture, Australian artist Sam Jinks creates very realistic sculptures like the one pictured above. It reminds me - as it is surely meant to - of the Pietà.

Surviving rabies 8/18/09 An Arizona man was set upon by a rabid bobcat last week and managed to strangle it with his bare hands.

Leonardo's lion 8/17/09 An instrument - the harpsichord-viola - has been reconstructed from the sketches in Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks.

Ripley's Seeing is Believing 8/14/09 In this post, I link to a video of a pelican swallowing a pigeon. Here is a report of 2 herons whose eyes were bigger than their stomachs - with fatal results.

Pangolins 7/20/09 My sister brought to my attention the recent rescue of some pangolins destined for the Black Market, and I found a number of recent recoveries: 130 and another 31 in December and 98 in August in Malaysia, and 66 in December in Thailand.

Green eggs and ham 5/11/09 Wild pigs are a hazard at the international airport in Harare, Zimbabwe. Dressing as a wild boar while hunting proved fatal in Greece. And walkers in Germany were terrorized by wild boars. (Plenty of weird wild boar news to form a future post about "Hogzilla" and his kin.)

Chihuahuas in the weird news 5/2/09 California animal shelters report an overabundance of chihuahuas and have begun to ship them out of state.

Frozen baby mammoth 4/26/09 "Lyuba" has been preserved and insured in preparation for an international museum tour.

Bears in the news 4/24/09 India's last performing bear has been set free to live out its remaining days in a sanctuary in Bangalore. A zoo in Georgia houses a lion, a tiger, and a bear together in a single habitat.

Centenarians - and then some 3/26/09 The Georgia centenarian mentioned by President Obama in his election night speech has died at the age of 107. Meanwhile, a man in Maine has turned 108. And on the darker side, a Massachusetts centenarian has been killed, purportedly by her 98-year-old roomate, and a 100-year-old sex offender has been released from prison in New York.

Big bunny 2/24/09 Here's a story about a giant pet rabbit who has patterned its behavior after the family's cocker spaniel.

Killer chimpanzees 2/17/09 Monkeys trained in the martial arts revolted and turned on their trainer in China.

Marine creatures 2/15/09 An aquarium in Norfolk, U.K., has lowered the water levels in the turtle tank so the creatures can be given their seasonal and vitamin-rich treat of brussel sprouts without their resultant gassiness triggering overflow alarms. And since we're talking about turtles, here's one with 2 heads and 6 legs.

Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday 2/12/09 The body of the former president of Cyprus has been stolen from his tomb.

Hedgehogs 1/8/09 Here's an overweight albino hedgehog on a swimming regimen to lose the ounces...

Rats! 12/20/09 A capybara - the world's largest rodent - has been accidentally crushed to death in a Canadian zoo.

Birds and dogs 12/15/08 In December, in Apalachicola, Florida, a man saw a medium-sized poodle snatched up by what appeared to be a chicken hawk, and a Pomeranian was carried off by an owl and dropped 2mi away, breaking her tail. Also in December - speaking of big birds - a hawk or falcon gots its talon stuck in the escalator of a metro station in Washington, D.C. and a hawk spent the night in a Wellington, Florida, hardware store [note that the manager's name is Quigley!]. Last year, professional golfer Tripp Isenhour got a lot of bad press and a fine for deliberately killing a red-shouldered hawk with a golf ball because it was interrupting the video he was shooting on an Orlando, Florida, course.

Space chimp 12/5/08 Russia's Cosmonautics Agency is in talks with an institute in the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia to send one of their 350 apes on a mission to Mars, looked after by a robot.

Yellowstone 11/21/08 Scientists have revealed that the seismic "plumbing" beneath Yellowstone National Park runs an astonishing 410 miles deep!

Connecticut clock manufacture

My Mom's hometown of Bristol, Connecticut, was a center of American clock manufacturing from the early 1800s. Much of the history centers on Elias Ingraham (1805-1885), who was associated with a series of clock companies during his lifetime:

• Ray & Ingraham, 1841-1844
• Brewster & Ingrahams, 1843-1852
• E. & A. Ingrahams, 1852-1856
• Elias Ingraham & Co., 1857-1860
• E. Ingraham & Co., 1861-1880
• The E. Ingraham & Co., 1881-1884
• The E. Ingraham Co., Inc., 1884+

Elias built thousands, designed dozens, and patented 17 clock cases. He remained head of his company until his death at age 80, when he was succeeded by his son Edward (1830-1892). After World War II, Ingraham abandoned pendulum clocks in favor of electric and alarm clocks. The last incarnation of the company, Ingraham Co. (1958-1967) was sold to McGraw-Edison, which continues to make clocks using the Ingraham trademark. When I was a child, Mom took me to Bristol's American Clock and Watch Museum, established in 1954 by another Ingraham - perhaps the father of a girl she remembers going to school with.

The 1st image shows the factory of E. Ingraham & Co. The 2nd image shows a 22" oak Ingraham calendar cottage clock c. 1900, worth almost $1,ooo today. The 3rd image shows the 2" wide brass key used to wind such clocks, and the 4th image shows the instructions for doing so.

And here's something I have long wondered: Why were clocks in store displays and advertisements set at the time of 8:20 (and now at 10:10)? The 8:20 time, popularly believed to mark the time President Lincoln died, was intended to showcase the clock-manufacturer's trademark, which appeared above the "6." The 10:10 time, thought to be based on the time of death of President Kennedy, was in fact chosen to best frame the manufacturer's logo when it began appearing under the "12." Instilled in viewers' minds during the TV ad campaigns of Timex in the 1960s, it has since been informally adopted as an industry standard. (President Lincoln was assassinated at approximately 10:13pm and lay in a coma for 9 hours before being pronounced dead at 7:22am. President Kennedy was assassinated at 12:30pm and pronounced dead at 1 o'clock.)

Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday

Today, as you may have heard on the news, is the 200th anniversary of the birth of our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. There have been celebrations of his life across the country - including the one in Springfield, Illinois, attended by President Barack Obama - so let me tell you a few things about his death...

The photo of Lincoln lying in an open coffin is the only one that exists. It was taken by photographer Jeremiah Gurney, Jr., on April 24, 1865, as the president's body lay in state in City Hall in New York. It was immediately confiscated by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (1814-1869) and was hidden away for 87 years until it was discovered in the Illinois State Historical Library in 1952, by then 15-year-old Ronald Rietveld, who was researching the papers of Lincoln's personal secretaries.

It was purported by some that President Lincoln's assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865), survived being killed by federal agents in Garrett's barn. Booth lived on for years, it was said by showmen drawing crowds to see several versions of the "mummy of John Wilkes Booth" (like the one to the left), as they circulated in carnival sideshows.


When Lincoln's body was deposited in this temporary tomb in Springfield's Oak Ridge Cemetery during construction of a permanent monument, thieves were caught in the act of stealing it and holding it in exchange for the release of an imprisoned counterfeiter! The story is told in the book Stealing Lincoln's Body by Thomas J. Craughwell.

When Lincoln's Tomb was renovated in 1900, the president's coffined remains were encased in more than 4,000 lbs. of concrete upon orders of his son Robert. At that time, 23 people viewed Lincoln's face and found the features totally recognizable. In 1928, Mr. J.C. Thompson described the experience: "As I came up I saw that top-knot of Mr. Lincoln's - his hair was course and thick, 'like a horse's,' he used to say - and it stood up high in front. When I saw that, I knew that it was Mr. Lincoln. Anyone who had ever seen his pictures would have known it was him. His features had not decayed. He looked just like a statue of himself lying there."

The Museum of Funeral Customs in Springfield exhibited a reproduction of Abraham Lincoln's coffin, scale models of Lincoln's railroad coach, and a ceremonial funeral arch erected for Lincoln's Chicago funeral. Most unfortunately, the museum - which I have visited and blogged about - closed as of December 31, 2008.

Hair jewelry

I heard a mention on TV that Teddy Roosevelt wore a ring containing a lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair. I found the story here:

When Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1905, John Hay gave the President a very special present--a "mourning ring" that contains an oval glass over a strand of Lincoln's hair. Hay sent a note with the ring that contains this request: "...Please wear it tomorrow; you are one of the men who most thoroughly understand and appreciate Lincoln."Roosevelt replied: "Dear John, Surely no other President, on the eve of his inauguration, has ever received such a gift from such a friend. I am wearing the ring now; I shall think of it and you as I take the oath tomorrow. I wonder if you have any idea what your strength and wisdom and sympathy, what the guidance you have given me and the mere delight in your companionship, have meant to me these three and a half years? With love and gratitude, Ever yours...."

Mourning jewelry was fashionable in Victorian times, in the form of brooches, rings, and lockets. Some was merely black (made of jet) and had a memorial theme, but some contained the hair of a loved one. The hair may be in a tuft, woven, or crafted into a mourning symbol like a willow. I have several pieces of hair jewelry in my Museum, including some pins, a bracelet, a watch chain, and a framed ornament that contains the hair of several members of the same family. I don't have photos of my hair jewelry, and I couldn't find a picture of the ring that Roosevelt wore, but I've posted some representative rings above.

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While I was poking around, I found this article about collecting the human hair of the famous, instead of their autographs. The article makes no mention of it, but if secular relics parallel religious relics, hair keepsakes constitute "first-class" or bodily relics, as opposed to "second-class" relics, which a person has touched. The trade in secular relics continues, as a search of Lincoln's hair shows: antique hair keepsakes offered up on e-bay and new ones created thanks to modern technologies.

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Maisenbacher House

I am just back from visiting with relatives in Springfield, Illinois, where I was when the Gov. Blagojevich scandal was breaking. Exciting stuff, and I hope it's all resolved quickly (by his resignation or impeachment). But visually more interesting than Rod's coiffe of black hair is the story of the Maisenbacher House. This historic house, associated with Abraham Lincoln, has been moved down 7th St. in Springfield, but has not yet been set on its foundation--a wonder to see!