The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

Comprising 38 broadsides, handbills, circulars, pamphlets, and other ephemera relating to donation drives and other efforts to fund the construction of the tomb. Contents include:

1) Memorial, Articles of Association and By-Laws, Rules, and Regulations of the National Lincoln Monument Association Organized at Springfield, Ill. May 11, 1865. Springfield: Steam Press of Baker & Phillips, 1865. 8vo. Original printed wrappers.

2) Partly engraved receipt from the Treasurer's Office of the Lincoln National Monument Association issued to Marine Bank in the amount of $244, 1 August 1865.

3) National Lincoln Monument Association, Incorporated by Act of Congress March 30th, 1867. Washington: Printed at the Great Republic Office, 1867. 8vo. Original printed wrappers.

4) To Artists of the United States... Springfield: National Lincoln Monument Association, March 12, 1868. (2 copies, the other dated January 28, 1868)

5) Admission ticket to Lincoln's tomb, ca 1870s.

Two days after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Lincoln Monument Association was formed in Springfield. Comprised of several prominent citizens, many of whom had been personal friends of the Lincolns, the group began to solicit donations for the construction of a grand monument to the fallen president, to be designed by Larkin Goldsmith Mead. The cornerstone was officially laid in 1868, and for the next three years, construction continued at a brisk pace, with Lincoln and his sons Eddie, Willie, and Tad placed in the unfinished structure. Three years later, the tomb was opened to the public.

In 1876, a bizarre episode unfolded in which a group of Illinois counterfeiters attempted to steal Lincoln's body and hold it for ransom in exchange for the release of their master engraver from prison. The plot was foiled, but the security of the tomb became a chief concern, particularly following Mary Lincoln's death and internment in 1882 and the revelation that the ground on which the tomb had been built was unstable. By 1895, the state of Illinois had had enough and purchased the tomb from the Lincoln National Monument Association, then began an extensive effort to repair and, in many cases, rebuild those parts of the tomb that had fallen into disrepair.

The attempted theft of Lincoln's remains never strayed far from Robert Lincoln's memory, however, and upon completing restoration of the tomb, he requested that his father's coffin be buried beneath ten feet of concrete and steel rods.