History Day Previous Topics

Mary Todd Lincoln

• Lincoln, Mrs. Mary, bill (H. R. No. 4) for the relief of, widow of the late President of the United States' 1866. The Congressional Globe, Senate, Thirty-Ninth Congress, 1865-1867, First Session, December 4, 1865 - July 28, 1866, F. & J. Rives page 107
• Lincoln, Mary, widow of Abraham, increase of pension to, recommended
  1882 Blair, H. W., Pensions
  Senate bill (Jan. 24, 1882)S. B. 860
  Source: Comprehensive Index to the Publications of the United States Government (Ames), 1881-1893
• Jewels to go: Mary Todd Lincoln collection loaned to Smithsonian 
  Volume: 51Issue: 7  Author: Tucker, Jean E.Publication Title: Library of Congress Information BulletinPages: 151Issuing Agency: Library of CongressSudoc: LC1.18: 

• The true story of Mary, wife of Lincoln; containing the recollections of Mary Lincoln's sister Emili  STLib Stacks  E457.25 .H47   

Other Institutions

Elizabeth Keckley

From Library of Congress Today in History (link below):

"On November 15, 1855 Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley’s emancipation deed was signed. This marked the beginning of a new life in freedom that was full of accomplishments as a successful entrepreneur, a generous philanthropist, publisher, and author. Although more well-known for her relationship with President Lincoln’s wife as her primary confidante and dressmaker, she was also a generous philanthropist and assisted former enslaved people who had escaped from the south during the Civil War."

"Her business savvy and personality enabled her to develop a very close personal relationship with Mary Todd Lincoln as her primary confidante. Keckley’s memoir, Behind the scenes; or, Thirty years a slave and four years in the White House, documents the domestic life of the Lincolns during their White House tenure. Her memoir also notes that her success as an entrepreneur served as the foundation for her philanthropy."

Portrait cited on LOC page as : "Behind the scenes. By Elizabeth Keckley… Or, Thirty years a slave, and four years in the White House. Frontispiece. New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., 1868."