Previously unknown Mary Lincoln letter obtained by ALPLM

Overwhelmed parents helping their children adjust to school and the demands of homework may find it reassuring to know that other people have been in their shoes, including Mary Lincoln. A previously unknown letter acquired by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum shows the former first lady apologizing to her son’s teacher for sending him to class unprepared.

“Taddie goes to school this morning, I am sorry to say, without knowing his lesson in geography. Illness last evening prevented my looking it over with him & he finds this a difficult geography,” she wrote on April 17, 1868, three years and two days after her husband’s death. “Please excuse him this time & oblige yours truly, Mrs. A. Lincoln,”

“Taddie” is Thomas “Tad” Lincoln, youngest son of Abraham and Mary. He was 15 years old in 1868, a time when he was making strides in learning and confidence after growing up largely uneducated and with a speech impediment that led to teasing when he first began attending school.

The brief letter was donated to the ALPLM earlier this year.

“This letter humanizes Abraham Lincoln’s widow and son in a way that few other documents can match,” said Ian Patrick Hunt, the ALPLM’s head of acquisitions. “It captures a perfectly ordinary moment that prompts us to think about Mary and Tad’s life after the assassination. Was Mary too ill to help with the homework because she was having another of her migraines? Was she incapacitated by grief? How was Tad adapting to a new school after the trauma of his father’s death?”

Tad was attending the Chicago Academy, which had been founded by Henry H. Babcock the previous year. The letter is addressed to “Mrs. Babcock,” presumably the founder’s wife, Mary. The note from Mrs. Lincoln, probably the most famous woman in America at the time, stayed in the Babcock family for generations until a descendant, Karen Moore, decided to share it with the public by donating it to the presidential library.

Tad and his mother had moved around Chicago several times in the uncertain years after the assassination. In the spring of 1868, they lived at the Clifton House hotel, which was destroyed in the 1871 Chicago fire. It was later described as “a first-class hotel of large accommodations, distinguished for the luxury, refinement, taste and elegance in which it was managed and conducted.” Tad would not remain at the Chicago Academy or the Clifton House much longer. Later in 1868, Mrs. Lincoln moved them to Germany. They didn’t return to the United States until May 1871.

Tragedy soon struck the Lincolns again. Tad became ill after their return. He struggled for weeks, often in pain and unable to breathe easily, until he died on July 15, 1871. The cause is unknown, but it may have been tuberculosis or congestive heart failure. Tad died at the Clifton House, the same place where his mother had written the note about his geography lesson.

The mission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is to inspire civic engagement through the diverse lens of Illinois history and share with the world the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. We pursue this mission through a combination of rigorous scholarship and high-tech showmanship built on the bedrock of the ALPLM’s unparalleled collection of historical materials – roughly 13 million items from all eras of Illinois history.

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