Billboard Women in Music 2025
Identifiable as former President Abraham Lincoln was by his black top hat, it is a pair of gloves that belonged to the 16th president that will be going under the gavel, as part of “Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln,” at Freeman’s I Hindman.
Presented on behalf of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, a nonprofit that owns a collection of Lincoln-related materials, the auction will be held in Chicago in Lincoln’s home state of Illinois. Approximately 140 items will be sold, including two items he was wearing on the night of his assassination. There will also be what is the earliest known sample of Lincoln’s writing from when he was about 15 years old. In a double-sided sum book covered with long division problems and signed three times, there is the verse, “Abraham Lincoln is my name / And with my pen I wrote / the same / I wrote in both hast and speed / and left it here for fools / to read.” That item has a pre-sale estimate of $300,000 to $400,000.
Historians and forensic specialists may be interested in a few items that Lincoln was wearing at Ford’s Theatre on the night of his assassination on April 14, 1865. Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, and he died the following morning. A pair of white kid gloves stained with blood that the former president wore are expected to fetch between $800,000 and $1.2 million. Another item from the fateful night is a single cuff button that bears the initial “L” and that has an estimate of between $200,000 and $300,000.
As a lead-up to the May 21 sale, exhibitions of the items are being shown in five cities, with the first being New York through Saturday. There will also be stops in Palm Beach on April 10 and 11 and April 14 to 17, followed by one in Philadelphia from April 23 to 26, and Cincinnati from April 29 to May 2. The final showing will be in Chicago from May 12 to 21.
Historical documents have generated some high sales. A rare parchment engraving of the Declaration of Independence sold for $4.4 million in January, which is said to be the highest auction price ever achieved for an American document printed in the 19th century. Other presidential memorabilia will soon be offered by another auction house Doyle’s in its “Rare Books” sale on April 11. Bidders will find a copy of the Warren Commission Report signed and inscribed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and future President Gerald Ford and a presidential flag presented by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Vincent Astor to fly aboard his yacht.
