Wifi enabled this so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. Comcast along with these Television Companies support cspan2 as a public service. Im honored to introduce our speaker for today, todd. Both author and funeral director and his family has been involved in that profession in delaware for four generations. Toss most recent book is last rites, evolution and american funeral and topical to us today about how Abraham Lincoln was at the center of the transformation of american funeral practices both during his time in the white house and through tragic death. We will have a question and answer session at the end, a couple of more microphones. Please take advantage of those because we want our cspan audience to hear the questions answers so ill turn it over to todd. [applause] thank you, judge. Its my pleasure to present to you this evening we all know what happens with friday, 1865. What im going to talk to you about is how the grand event that was Abraham Lincolns transformed and set the stage for traditional american funeral, the funeral that americans would use for the next century and a half but in order to understand with got to backtrack about four years from the time lincoln was assassinated so we are going to go back to the day that virginia told a referendum to ratify the articles of succession. On that evening about 10 00 captain john speed led three companies from the Washington National across the bridge that separated washington d. C. From virginia and essentially established bulwark for the Union Invasion of the south. They drove it back into i the countryside about midnight the army started invading the south. Near Washington Navy yard on the ground, the lunatic asylum, the 11th new york regiment was there in three of the companies that regiment were boarding the gunboats, side field, close. Coming out of the office across the street was in in cold Marshall House and above was a 40foot flagpole upon which the sessions flagged so large it was said to be seen from the white house on a clear day with binoculars and the white house about 5 miles away so thats a big flag. He said thats why its got to come down and said nevermind he raised up to the stairs of the room. Meet the priest to death after insulting him and when the priest told authorities the sheriff rounded up a policy and went to jacksons home where he barricaded himself inside with his brother and fired upon his share fed policy and he said an assault charge is not worth my life so he was a man with a reputation for violence and when they woke himur and said Union Soldiers are on your roof taking down your flight when he grabbed his shotgun and ran for the stairs. Coming down it was like cape and gotot down and you could tear up the flag and give it to them and. He leveled it through. Missus brown didnt hesitate, as thepo Philadelphia Inquirer relator reported, we had to first happening here. The first one being ellsworth was the first Union Officer casualty of the civil war and brownell was later awarded the congressional medal of honor so he became the first recipient of the congressional medal of honor for action during the civil war. It happened at about five seconds. Word of ellsworths dead were reached quickly via telegraph office and there was a man, enterprising position from brooklyn and Thomas Holmes had a unique hillside and knew how to involve people and has come down to washington thinking the rebellion b2 and boehm people and shipped them because the only way to ship people was the adams express and would only ship human remains if they were sealed in an airtight often or were involved. Madeght coffins were ramping up wartime production and metal used to make ammunition so the manufacturers of these airtight coffins for having trouble getting material so if you could find one, itea would be very expensive so the only option was to be involved. And president lincoln, a dear friend of his and served as his bodydy guard to washington. And his parents might see him. President lincoln said i do not know what embalming is, i cannot grant this permission and is able to secure permission for the embalming of ellsworth. And it went back to the Washington Navy yard and another day. And it was laid out and ellsworth raised a regiment, new york fireman he thought these are men who rush towards fires and they will make excellent soldiers. This is a fresh in the war. The standard using Union Soldier so ellsworth was autopsied so it might be called a firehouse today, a fire apparatus. After the autopsy was complete, he got to work embalming proprietary fluid and while he was embalming ellsworth, the president ial person showed up. That was missus lincoln and this was victorian times. Ellsworth was undergoing a surgical procedure and it wouldnt be right for a woman to see him this way. They returned to the navy yard in the president s company lincoln. He says the honor guard, i would like permission to bring colonel ellsworth to the house and he goes back so they bring ellsworth to the white house where hes laid out in the east room and about 300 politicians and military officials gather for a funeral ceremony. He looks natural, he looks like hes only sleeping. Think about this, until this moment in time this would have made ellsworth rendered unreviewable. In the white house looking natural like hes only sleeping, the death of his head almost. By wars and he involved 4028 soldiers but it was this that essentially gave the green light to embalm during civil war after the ellsworth lane, many men walked to fly there embalming and make their fortune so to understand a little bit, we need to step back another decade in 1845, he wrote essentially the first embalming textbook in the mid 1830s and here on the right we have in 1845, this was essentially the undisputed embalmer in europe at the time and said i have a better way to do things so they took part in this competition e for embalming supremacy care before the medical board these two and one other each involved a body and used embalming, and used chloride it is clear in a minute and they dug them up to see what they look like and they didnt show any signs of the opposition. At this time an agent to conduct embalming to license his methodology and formula of zinc chloride in america licensed by a dentist in new york city, doctor Charles Brown so lets fastforward back into the civil war, embalming is becoming commonplace. Commonplace for those who could afford it, its estimated 6 of soldiers killed for embalm and sent home. This is doctor richard and gettysburg, holmes brotherinlaw and over here chamberlain embalming again and the calamity. He dies of a fever. This is natural and he looks like hes only sleeping so they sent for an embalmer. I had never read anything definitive on what i suspect is in the field, they would follow armies so she calls him the firm ofan brown and alexander ad thee embalming in chloride and a 23yearold man and she was laid out in the green room of the white house and then was temporarily deterred as Oak Hill Cemetery and William Carol was Supreme Court clerk at the time. President lincoln would visit the tomb often and is said to have ordered his confidence sealed so he could view the bodies. And it was similar, and 1850s version and there were two companies in the company in europe. And the raymond version because senator ward was an owner of the company. Your good buddy owns a Coffin Company and youre probably going to use that coffin. Lets move forward three years after the death of willie and we all know what happened friday 1865. So the following day when lincoln died, he was transferred to the white house under the direction of this land. Funerals of government officials and lincoln was transferred from the Peterson House to the white house in aup plain wooden coffin supplied by harvey and mark and i think it shows because of proximity. They shared the same outings so thats why they supplied the coffin and lincoln was transferred to the princesm wales and the white house. There were nine doctors in attendance so they didnt do the y incision, one of those being robert stones, a family physician in the other being surgeonep general and this was o worried they didnt have a proper procession kit. One of the surgeons offered up his own personal invitation kit. After the autopsy and used alexander once again and documented when the messenger arrived doctor brown prolific well known in ballmer, is of the office when they came in. For some reason henry, now age 26 with no medical experience was sent to the white house alone to embalm the president of the united states. Think about what you are doing at age 26 and being burdened with that momentous task. Henry used doctors formula and inject five through president lincolns artery. After which he was dressed and shaved i and left until his cofn could be made. This was done partially by design so they could double having people walking by on one and going by on both sides so double the people viewing president lincoln. This is custom built to 6foot, 6 inches to accommodate the president s 6foot 4inch frame. It is interesting is the standard length because it is the link that can accommodate 99. 8 of all americans without giving a larger casket. This cost the government to 1500 for 24500 in todays money. On tuesday the 18th, folks were admitted to the white house to view the president and the following day wednesday the 19th, there was a private ceremony held at the white house for 600 ticketholders were admitted. After that ceremony, the president s coffin was taken to the capital where it was in the rotunda. President lincoln was the second person to lie in state from the first president. Thereve been 35 people to date that laid in state in the capitol rotunda. The morning of the 21st, lincolns coffin was taken from the Capital Building and taken to the train station. The idea was essentially to have a National General where people couldta partake so that we willo the train journey back to springfield where they wanted the president. So the train is going to go 1662 miles and is 104 crossroads, stopping 11 times on the journey ending may 4 in springfield for the president s burial. His son would accompany him but never part of the funeral ceremony in any city. It stayed on the car the whole time. Tour the country during reconstruction. All right. It was hastily outfitted when. The president was assassinated. So it was draped in the so it was great in the appropriate buntings and black great of the time. But it was said to be very nice, kind of the pullman car of it today. It had a sitting room, a parler, a bedroom, and wheels that could accommodate different gauge tracks here interestingly enough, the president was rumored to have supposed to be inspecting the car on the saturday he died. So stop one was baltimore, and this is his son, robert, and robert road from washington to baltimore about a two hour ride. If this is the only lincoln Family Member to ride what was called the lake and special. Thats what they called lincolns funeral train. So he rode a grand total of two hours and that was the only time they lincoln Family Member rode the train. Robert did later meet the entourage, the funeral entourage, in springfield. And in baltimore lincolns coffin was taken e to the exchae building where he was viewed for an hour and a half. Sof this was the shortest viewg time out of any of the stops, and its estimated about 10,000 people viewed him during this time. So from there he was taken to harrisburg where the Funeral Party was met with just an absolute deluge of rain 30 was taken to the capital there with 25,000 people viewed him. And then from there the following day we stopped at lancaster. Has coffin is coffin wd lincolns predecessor james buchanan, the 15th president , was in attendance for the reception andla lancaster. Stop three in philadelphia. Now, it was reported that the train as it was coming into philadelphia almost stalled because there were so many flowers seeped onto the tracks. Now, i find that very unusual and interesting because think about how much they train ways and how many flowers it would take to stall out train. With this is one of the pieces of thel lincoln funeral that kd of changed american burial practices or american funeral practices here prior to the lincoln funeral flower offerings were made here flower offerings have been made since antiquity, but mostly it was kind of a simple bouquet picked from somebodys garden and brought to the ceremony. And the thought was of surrounding the ugliness of death with something kind of vibrant and nicelooking as a floor offering. But it also had a practical purpose of covering up or masking the elders of decomposition, which once and only involvement came into vogue, was really not needed anymore. But after the lincoln funeral we start to see these grand floral offerings. People are essentially mimicking what they saw during lincolns services and all the cities he went to. This topic here, this is his cattle fault in columbus. You can see how it is just heaped with loads of flowers and then this one is here from a stop in michigan city, indiana picked these pillars here were decorated with flowers picked from hundreds of local gardens. So we see flower displays as beingbe part of kind of this national morning, fraternities and social organizations, if the Lincoln Special stop in your village and the coffin was not offloaded it was very common for them to take floral tributes onto the train. And receive the emergence now what are called set pieces flowers arranged to look like something else, crosses, reefs were common things that were taken onto the train as tribute to these slain president. After lincolns funeral receive these get more ornate. The broken hearts drink. These all become very popular victorian floral offerings. But really theyre kind of genesis, the urgent is with the lincoln funeral. Now stop three in philadelphia, that ceremonies are officiated by an undertaker by the name of es burley. This her seat created by the vent cost 4 is 84,000, be rougy 73,000 in todays money. And lincolns remains were taken toto independence hall, the Assembly Room with a declaration of independence with side, it is coffin was laid out so his head was symbolically pointing towards the libertyville. So from 5 a. M. On Ashley Liberty bell. Until 2 a. M. On the 24th so at time of whats that, 21 hours . Approximately 150,000 people stood in line to view the president. From there the Lincoln Special s went up to jersey city where lincolns , the lincoln her scarf was put onto a ferry for crossing into new york. At the Ferry Terminal the clock was stopped at 7 22. I couldnt find a picture of a clock stopped at 7 22. This is a very common victorian superstition, and that they were afraid that the dead would not be able to pass on to where they were going. The dead should know no time, so they could pass freely into the next world so pretty much every stop, all thehe clocks in the building were stopped at the minute of his death, and also all the mirrors were great. So this was another very common victorian superstition, one that if the dead spirit saw themselves, reflected in the near, they would realize they were dead andt begin they couldnt pass on. So all the mirrors wouldve been great in all the locations that lincoln opticallys wereer held. Now, when the ferry arrived at the station it was met by the undertaker in new york. Dug the graves at the willet street methodist episcopal church, and as such he was often called upon by new yorkers to also handle theun funeral arrangements because he knew how to do things to effectively marry somebody. Peter was a carpenter by trade. So on the morning of april 21st, a committee of aldermen approached him and said, peter, president ial funeral will be held here on the 24th and we need you to build a hearse of the grandest magnitude you can think of. So thats three days, 72 hours. So peter was up to the task. He accepted, and in 72 hours he built perhaps one of the grandest persons that were used in the lincoln funeral. He employed 60 men and women. They worked around the clock for three days straight. The hearse was 14 feet long, eight feet wide and 15 feetnd tall. It was pulled by 16 gray horses, each led by a group effort that the city of new york paid 9000, or roughly i think 165,000 in todays money. This was a common theme. All these cities would make the customers to carry lincolns remains, something we were out trying to do each other. Something grander than the previous one. And typically the s coffin was t about five or six feet off the ground so it was processing through the city streets, everyone could see it. Now, the procession wound its way through the city until i got to city hall where a course of 800 people singing greeted it while lincolns coffin was taken upstairs and laid outside of the governors room in city hall. Thro come in and view the president , this man here, this is general eddie townsend. All right. He was essentially acting as Edwin Stantons proxy during this. Stanton did not come on the Lincoln Special, and he a photograph or by the name of Jeremiah Gurney to come in and photograph the president. Now this is the only known photograph that exists of the president because thats when mrs. Lincoln agreed to Edwin Stanton for the funeral train. There was a couple conditions, one no show be made of her son willie to the president , not be photographed. Well, this hit the evening new york. Stanton found out about it and he was furious. So he ordered all the prints and all the negatives of this photograph to be destroyed. This was located in 1952 by a 14 year old boy who was combing through the nicolay papers at the bollinger collection at the university of iowa. All right. This photograph came from louis stanton. So thats son gave it to john nicolay, who bundled it up in these papers. And they were eventually give