(3/23/05)

The following article appeared in the State Journal-Register, Springfield, IL

Historic carriage rolled in

Carried Lincolns on last ride to Ford’s Theater
By PETE SHERMAN
STAFF WRITER

Tuesday was not the best day for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum to receive the carriage that took Abe and Mary to Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865, the night the president was assassinated.

“Anything beyond no sun, 70 degrees and 45 percent humidity makes me nervous,” said William Snyder, registrar at the museum.

Snyder was among several museum officials helping unload the carriage at the museum early Tuesday afternoon. It took Chicago-based art movers Terry Dowd Inc. a while to shrink-wrap the carriage inside the back of their truck and erect a plastic-tarp tent to protect the carriage from near-freezing temperatures, gusty winds and lots of rain.

Eventually, the carriage was rolled safely into the museum, past dozens of workers and guests and a replica of the White House.

“It’s been 140 years since this carriage drove by the White House,” said Richard Norton Smith, director of the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. “This is what it’s all about.”

The carriage is on loan from the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Ind., for the Lincoln museum’s six-month temporary exhibit that premiers on opening day, Tuesday, April 19. The carriage will be one of the centerpieces of the exhibit, an in-depth examination of Lincoln’s assassination.

The temporary show also will include Lincoln’s deathbed and several other loaned artifacts, many of which have rarely or never left their current homes.

The black, leather-clad carriage is significant in many ways. It was a gift from the people of New York City, who presented it to the president in 1865, shortly before his second inauguration. The mountings are solid silver, and the door was engineered so that the steps automatically folded out when the door opened.

The carriage also played a central role in an intimate moment between the Lincolns, which Mary later related to William Herndon. Mary and her husband had been riding in the carriage earlier on the 14th, Good Friday. The Civil War, though finally over, had taken its toll on the couple, as had the death of their son Willy in 1862. They sat in the carriage and talked.

“We must both be more cheerful in the future,” Lincoln told Mary. “Between the war and the loss of our darling Willy - we have both been very miserable.”