Visit Mary Todd Lincoln House
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Wales was eventually freed and bought her first house in Lexington just a month before Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated. She adds that their lifestyle was made possible because of slavery, and on average, they had three to five formerly enslaved people working in the home at any given time. These men and women cooked, cared for the children, and did additional skilled and menial work. The house is full of original furniture pieces and other artifacts that are indicative of the Todd family's privileged lifestyle.
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Designed for children ages 5-9, this free packet includes directions for playing old-fashioned games, making a Lincoln family photo album, Civil War songs, and other pastimes the Lincolns enjoyed. The Mary Todd Lincoln house has the distinction of being the first historic site restored in honor of a First Lady.[3] Operated by the Kentucky Mansions Preservation Foundation, Inc., the house museum was opened to the public on June 9, 1977. 1803–1806 as an inn and tavern, which was called "The Sign of the Green Tree" before its purchase by Mary's father, Robert Smith Todd, for the Todd family. Mary Todd lived in this home until 1839, when she moved to Springfield, Illinois. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln visited her family here. "Our primary focus in the dining room has to do with those individuals," Thompson said, adding that one of the formerly enslaved women who was living and laboring in the Todd household was named Jane Wales.
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Kid’s at-Home Activity Packet
Four years later, at the instigation of her only surviving child Robert, Mary was confined against her will for several months at an asylum in Batavia, Illinois. Mary Lincoln’s mental health continues to be debated by historians and is frequently the subject of pop culture references to the former first lady. Though there are some queries that may never be answered, interactive exhibits in Mary's old home allow visitors to consider all the possibilities and appreciate the history behind them all. One item is a silver mug, set between photographs of Mary and Abraham's sons, William "Willie" Lincoln and Thomas "Tad" Lincoln.
Visit Mary Todd Lincoln House
After your visit, enjoy our museum store, small garden, and complimentary downtown self-guided walking tour. The Mary Todd Lincoln House was the family home of the wife of 16th president Abraham Lincoln. Mary Lincoln was sophisticated, educated, and versed in politics. Yet, few women in American history have endured as much controversy and tragedy. In the early days of Kentucky's history, a Cherokee chief promised the settlers the land he was giving up would be a “dark and bloody one.” When war broke out in 1860, his prescience may have been recalled with good reason.
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In the family parlor, for example, original prints from "The Albion" — the British, Colonial, and Foreign Weekly Gazette — hang above the mantel. "There (are five) things we want people to know about when they visit here," Thompson told The Courier Journal. First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln resided in this fashionable brick residence between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one, and Abraham Lincoln was a guest here following their marriage. Personal articles from the Lincoln and Todd families are on display and a restored garden is located in the rear.
Although Kentucky as a border state was committed to neither the North nor the South, the armies of both were deployed back and forth across the state many times, leaving behind broken lives and bitter memories. The conflict took an irreparable toll of Mary Todd Lincoln's life, dissolving it into a painful Greek tragedy—with the loss of her husband, her brothers, and the alienation of most of her family. All the sectional and political prejudices of the war's bitterness were brought to a fine focus on Lincoln's widow. Hated by Northerners for her southern background, detested by Southerners for marrying a Yankee, she was unmercifully persecuted. Lincoln's death left her debt-ridden, and, when her pleas to Congress for a pension were repeatedly ignored, she was reduced to selling some of her old clothes.
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Mary Lincoln lived independently in Europe for several years following her controversial institutionalization. Illness forced her to return to the United States, where she died July 1882 in the home of her sister Elizabeth, in which she married Lincoln almost forty years before. Her remains are entombed, along with her husband’s, in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. During these years, she traveled internationally, fought for a widow’s pension, explored the practice of spiritualism, and continued to raise her youngest son Tad.
While modest in size, the museum store offers a variety of books about Mrs. Lincoln and Kentucky history, Lincoln related items, and souvenirs. Located in the heart of downtown Lexington, the Federal-style house was constructed by 1806 and is one of the oldest structures in the city. Prior to restoration in the 1970s, the property was only a shadow of the grand home where Mary Lincoln brought her husband, future president Abraham Lincoln, for a long visit in 1847. The childhood home opened as a museum in 1977, becoming the first historic site dedicated to a first lady. Mary was the daughter of a prominent Lexington native Robert Smith Todd and his first wife Eliza Parker, who died when Mary was six years old.
Becoming Mrs. Abraham Lincoln
In summer, all meals were prepared in a separate cookhouse and brought in warming cabinets to be served on the family's prized collection of blue and white Canton china. Today the Todd house is the property of the state and has been leased to a foundation organized by Beula Nunn, wife of Kentucky's former governor, Louie B. Nunn, for the purpose of preserving the state's many old mansions. Working from an estate list left by Robert Todd, the foundation has restored the house and retrieved many of the family furnishings.
Today the enclosed gardens contain trees, plants, herbs and shrubs that represent what may have been in the gardens at the Todd home in the early nineteenth century. In compliance with the ADA, service animals on harness or leash are permitted inside the museum. The ADA defines service animals as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. We are located within easy walking distance of downtown hotels, restaurants, and shopping.
As Thompson explains, Willie contracted typhoid fever and died while Abraham was president. In early 1862, when their eleven-year-old son Willie died from typhoid fever, Mary was grief-stricken. He was the second of three Lincoln children who would die before adulthood. The heaviest blow fell on April 14, 1865, with Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. A mutual interest in politics was one of the things that drew Mary to attorney Abraham Lincoln, whom she met while visiting an older sister in Springfield, Illinois. Mary exchanged her life of relative ease and privilege for that of a middle-class wife when she married Lincoln in 1842.
The Mary Todd Lincoln House in Lexington, Kentucky, explores the life and times of America's most fascinating first lady through tours and public programs. Mary Todd Lincoln was sophisticated, educated, and well-versed in politics. Yet few women in American history endured as much controversy and tragedy as Mary Lincoln. The museum primarily offers self-guided tours with our knowledgeable, friendly staff available to answer questions. The experience offers flexible scheduling and is perfect for those who like exploring at their own pace. The self-guided tour is available during our hours of operation Monday-Saturday and limited to 15 guests every half hour.
Oblivious to the play of his young sons and their cousins, he read Gibbons, Shakespeare, Burns, Prentice's Life of Henry Clay, Byron, Pope. Born in to a wealthy, political family on December 13, 1818, Mary Todd Lincoln was sophisticated, educated, and versed in politics. Yet, few women in American history have endured as much tragedy and controversy. Kentuckians know the Bluegrass State is the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, but the Commonwealth was also home to his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. In fact, her family lived in a Georgian abode in downtown Lexington. The home eventually became the first house museum in the U.S. to honor a First Lady, and it is still open to the public today.
"(Because she) chose to remain in mourning for the rest of her life," Thompson explained, "(she) only wore black." To the left of the guide, there sits a black cap and fan, one of likely several sets she owned while in perpetual mourning. After Abraham was assassinated, Mary lived for another 17 years. She traveled extensively, sailing to Europe with her son Tad to create a home base in Frankfurt, Germany before visiting Paris, London, Scotland, and Belgium. "(That’s) pretty incredible for a formerly enslaved woman," Thompson exclaimed.
Mary was the fourth of the eventual sixteen children born in her father’s two marriages. A businessman and politician, Robert provided his children with social standing, education, and material advantages that Mary's future husband, Abraham Lincoln, lacked in his own youth. The heritage of the house can be glimpsed in the treasures from Mary Lincoln's White House years, but more revealing than tangible objects is the feeling of time held constant within these walls.
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