Auction of Lincoln Artifacts Called a 'Woeful Calamity'

Nearly 20 years ago, the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting Abraham Lincoln's life and legacy, bought more than 1,500 artifacts related to the 16th US president. The collection "was intended to be available for public display forever," per the AP. But nearly 10% of those items have now been auctioned off to close out the very loan used to make the 2007 purchase—including the bloodied leather gloves and two handkerchiefs Lincoln carried on the night he was assassinated; a poem penned by a teenage Lincoln on a page from an 1824 workbook, representing the earliest known example of his handwriting; and locks of hair from Lincoln, his wife, and his son Willie, who died at age 11.

In all, 144 artifacts were offered up Wednesday at Freeman's/Hindman in Chicago, per the Washington Post. The gloves sold for $1.52 million, including the buyer's premium. A handkerchief sold for $826,000 and the 1824 workbook page sold for $521,200. Perhaps surprisingly, a "wanted" poster featuring three suspects in the Lincoln assassination sold for $762,500, well above the high estimate of $120,000. The auction raised a total of $7.9 million, but as that total includes buyers' premiums, it might not be quite enough to cover the foundation's debt, said to be around $8 million, per the AP. After a $2 million donation, the foundation took out a $23 million loan to purchase the full 1,540-item collection of Lincoln artifacts from California collectors Louise and Barry Taper, per the Post.

It expected to pay off the loan with private donations. A decade later, the foundation resorted to a GoFundMe campaign with nearly $10 million in debt. It said the foundation had raised more than $15 million in private donations—but it wasn't enough. Historian David Gerleman calls the breakup of the collection "a woeful calamity for both academics and the general public" as the items sold "may never be viewed [publicly] again," per the Post. Louise Taper isn't happy, either. "I am appalled," she told WBEZ hours before the auction took place. "My intent was for these historic items to reside in a place for the public to enjoy and learn from," she added, not to have them "dispersed to the wind." (More Abraham Lincoln stories.)