First published with USA Really.
The actual gloves worn by 16th US President Abraham Lincoln the night he was shot by Confederate conspirator and anti-abolitionist John Wilkes Booth while attending Ford’s Theater, might be going on the auction block soon.
The History Channel reports that the gloves have been in the possession of the nonprofit Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation in Springfield, Illinois, since 2007, when they were purchased from a private collector as part of a sizable collection of rare Lincoln memorabilia. Unfortunately, the Foundation borrowed a large portion of the funds necessary for obtaining the antiques, heirlooms and curiosities, and is still struggling to pay off the final $9 million dollars in loans owed to whichever creditors.
While the figures might sound extraordinary, rescuing and safeguarding such historic artifacts for the benefit of the public is a necessary ordeal. A country’s cultural history is the root of its cultural identity, something afforded tremendous weight in our world today, which is precisely why so many museums and libraries and schools are systematically bombed in each and every foreign conflict regardless of its players.
So, to settle its debt, certain items from among the Foundation’s public displays are in consideration for auctioning, with the Foundation as well running a GoFundMe fundraising drive. Also among the collection is the top hat also worn by Lincoln that fateful night. But it lacks the blood of the President, an obvious selling point if for no better reason than the macabre weirdness of it. For the right monied collector of oddities, such an item as this pair of bloodied gloves could present a wonder of a conversation starter when entertaining guests,or could even be worn while out and about, provided their hands are smaller than OJ Simpson’s.
In a possibly related story, and despite past and recent declarations of “mission accomplished”, House Republicans are just now seriously weighing options of dropping the finale to their one-two punch of tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest. Purportedly to save some face in assorted regional elections so as to help maintain the Grand Old Party’s current partisan dominance in DC, but also conceivably to prevent the right monied collector from using the additional disposable incomes for accumulating Lincoln’s bloodstained gloves and inadvertently finding themselves reminded of a long-ago time when Republicans were not so eager to cater to racists.