The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln's Widow, as Revealed by Her Own Letters

Notes

157 notes The unpublished manuscript of Myra Pritchard’s work, “The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln’s Widow, as Revealed by Her Own Letters,” now resides in folder 5, container 8, part 2 of the Robert Todd Lincoln Family Papers in the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress. Endnote citations to the manuscript—which may seem like the book is referencing itself—have been made because some of the Mary Lincoln letters Pritchard transcribed exist only in her manuscript. The original letters owned by Pritchard’s family for decades, from which her book was written, have not been found. Pritchard originally divided her manuscript into nine separate sections for serial publication, with each section having its own independent page numbering . Therefore, all citations in this book are by Pritchard’s chapter and page number . For example, 2:8 signifies chapter 2, page 8 from the original manuscript. The following abbreviations have been used to simplify endnote citations: ALPL Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, Ill. CHM Chicago History Museum, Chicago, Ill. IF Mary Todd Lincoln Insanity File, Lincoln Financial Collection, Lincoln Library at Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Ind., courtesy of the State of Indiana. LB Robert Todd Lincoln Letterpress Books, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, Ill. All citations include the volume number, microfilm reel number, and page number of the letter cited. For example, an entry designated as “LB, 1:1:133–39” means vol. 1, reel 1, pages 133–39 in the Letterpress Books. LOC Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. RTLFP Robert Todd Lincoln Family Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. • 158 Notes to Pages ix–xi editor’s introduction 1. Myra Pritchard claimed to own thirty-seven letters “written by Mrs. Abraham Lincoln to my grandparents, Judge and Mrs. Bradwell,” although she used only thirty-one letters in her book—and not all of them were written by Mary Lincoln. Pritchard stated in chapter 9 that she chose not to publish all the letters in her possession, and her figures indicate that she had six more letters. It appears that Pritchard was a victim of poor semantics in that not all of her thirty-seven letters were written by Mary Lincoln but that she possessed thirty-seven letters total, and they were written to and from various people, with the majority of them by Mary Lincoln. Also, Pritchard’s estate inventory lists a letter from Mary Lincoln to Myra Bradwell dated Aug. 2, 1867, but the manuscript does not include it, and Pritchard herself always said her letters spanned 1872–78. Why this earlier letter was not included is unknown, but it was subsequently discovered by this author in 2008. Myra Helmer Pritchard, “Statement Regarding the Disposal of Mary Lincoln Letters ,” Mar. 1, 1928, Pritchard Family Papers. A partial list of the letters in Pritchard’s possession can be found in the Myra Helmer Pritchard estate inventory, Sept. 19, 1947, Pritchard Family Papers. For the 1867 letter, see Jason Emerson, “New Mary Lincoln Letter Found,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 101, nos. 3, 4 (fall-winter 2008): 315–28. 2. Myra Helmer Pritchard, “Statement Regarding the Disposal of Mary Lincoln Letters ,” Mar. 1, 1928, Myra Pritchard Family Papers. 3. Myra Helmer Pritchard, “The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln’s Widow, as Revealed by Her Own Letters,” unpublished manuscript, 2:8, folder 5, cont. 8, part 2, RTLFP. Horner’s Lincoln collection was later donated to the Illinois State Historical Library and was the basis for the current collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. 4. Eleanor Gridley, affidavit, Mar. 8, 1929, Pritchard Family Papers. Gridley was the author of The Story of Abraham Lincoln: Or the Journey from the Log Cabin to the White House (New York: Eaton and Mains, 1900). Lincoln historian Ida M. Tarbell also knew about the letters after James Bradwell mentioned them to her during an interview in the late 1890s. Tarbell did not press Bradwell about the letters, however, as her subject was Abraham Lincoln, not Mary. James Bradwell, interview by Ida Tarbell, n.d., The Ida M. Tarbell–Lincoln Collection, Pelletier Library, Allegheny College, Meadville, Penn. 5. Honoré Willsie Morrow, Mary Todd Lincoln: An Appreciation of the Wife of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Morrow, 1928), 6. 6. W. A. Evans, Mrs. Abraham Lincoln: A Study of Her Personality and Her Influence on Lincoln (New York: Knopf, 1932), 4. 7. Page 1 of Myra Pritchard’s manuscript is stamped “editorial department paid may 28, 1927,” with a handwritten...