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And when George Washington's Birthday rolls around (it's not called President's Day, according to Congress), people in Washington tend to think of our 16th president as much as they do our city's namesake. Part of the confusion can be blamed on Congress for passing the 1968 "Monday Holiday Law," which changed the federal observance of Washington's birthday from Feb. 22 to the third Monday in February. That date usually falls within a few days of Lincoln's birthday, Feb. 12. But don't let mere technicalities prevent you from giving Lincoln his due. While Washington gets more birthday festivities held in his honor in February, every place in town seems to have its objet de Lincoln – or at least a story about him. The National Museum of American History has the top hat he wore the night he was assassinated at Ford's Theatre. The National Portrait Gallery has 1917 castings of an original life mask and molds of his hands taken in 1860. Frederick Douglass's home, Cedar Hill, has two items: an ivory and wood walking cane that Mary Todd Lincoln gave to Douglass after her husband's death and a large lithographic print of Lincoln, which he gave to Douglass. What about the Lincoln Bedroom, the media's favorite? "Nonsense," cries Mike Maioney, a park ranger and Lincoln buff at Ford's Theatre. "There's no such thing. Harry Truman gutted the White House during his term," he explains. "What is now called the Lincoln Bedroom was Lincoln's office," he says, adding: "And no one can confirm that he slept in that bed." The Library of Congress has an impressive collection, donated by Robert Todd Lincoln in 1919. On display in its long-running "American Treasures" exhibit are the contents of Lincoln's pockets the night of his assassination, including two pairs of spectacles and a pocketknife. His brown leather wallet contains a five-dollar Confederate note (presumably because he'd recently been to Richmond) and nine newspaper clippings, all backing Lincoln for various actions during his term.
For those who harbor a more morbid wonder with Lincoln, plenty of sites deal with his death, beginning with Ford's Theatre. Visitors can see the box where he sat when actor John Wilkes Booth shot him. Downstairs in the museum, the clothes he wore that night are on display, along with a pressed flower from his coffin. Park rangers at the museum will read from Lincoln's work on Feb. 16, from noon until 2 p.m. The chief historian of the Park Service, Dwight Pitcaithley, will read the Gettysburg Address. Across from Ford's Theatre, you can visit the boarding room in Petersen House where Lincoln was taken immediately after he was shot. The stark simplicity of the room offers a sadder, if more realistic, picture of his death. The National Museum of Health and Medicine has a small exhibit featuring the bullet that killed Lincoln, fragments of his skull removed from the wound area at autopsy and blood stains on the cuff of an attending surgeon. For a full day of the assassination plot, take the John Wilkes Booth Escape Route Tour sponsored by the Surratt Society. The 12-hour event is offered from April through September. The bus tour begins in the wee hours at Surratt House in Clinton, Md., (former home of Mary Surratt, one of the alleged conspirators), first stops at Ford's Theatre, and retraces Booth's flight from the city. But to imagine Lincoln at ease, your best bet is Anderson Cottage at the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home on North Capitol Street. Now a retirement community for all military branches, the cottage on the grounds was the summer White House for several presidents, and it has special ties to Lincoln. After their son Willie died in 1862, Lincoln and his wife began using the house as a retreat from mid-June to November. Its high position in the city afforded wartime security and some relief from the insect-packed heat. It is here that Lincoln wrote the second draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. While a move to restore the cottage is underway, currently it houses the public affairs offices for the home. Kerri Childress, the public affairs officer, welcomes visitors anytime, but they must first call 202/722-3556 during work hours. She'll be happy to point out the copper beech that Lincoln climbed while playing with son Tad and other children. From Anderson Cottage, during the summer of 1864, Lincoln rode one mile to Fort Stevens to witness the Confederate advance on the capital. He became known as the first president to come under hostile fire. Legend has it that gunfire barely missed him, and a young Oliver Wendell Holmes pushed him to the ground, yelling: "Get down you damned fool." A marker near the reconstructed earthen ramparts shows where Lincoln stood. To get there from the Mall: Go north on 14th Street, crossing Military Road. Take a right at the next block, Peabody Street. Go one block, park, and follow the dirt road on the left, uphill to the fort. Other places around town relate to the 16th president, although they're without much tangible evidence. Before Lincoln won the presidency, he served in the House of Representatives, taking a room on First Street, between A Street SE and East Capitol Street, now the site of the Library of Congress. You can also walk in his footsteps at Oak Hill Cemetery, where Lincoln's son Willie was buried before his body was moved to Illinois. Again, there's no marker here, and cemetery hours are restricted. But for the true Lincoln buff, labels aren't necessary. Oh, there's also that memorial on the Mall.
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Civil War soldiers at Fort Stevens, where Lincoln stood in the midst of gunfire.
(Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
Items found in Lincoln's pockets the night he was assassinated.
(Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
