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Fragment of towel stained with the blood of Abraham Lincoln

Fragment of towel stained with the blood of Abraham Lincoln Fabric
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Fabric, circa 1865

6.3 cm x 6.1 cm

Artifact # 0609
[Note this artifact was enclosed with a letter that Augustus Clark sent to S. M. Allen, 16 April 1865.]


This piece of fabric is from a woven white linen towel and has a faded brown stain, the blood of Abraham Lincoln. This small artifact was sent as an enclosure in a letter dated 16 April 1865, the day after Lincoln's death, from Augustus Clark, a War Department employee, to his uncle S. M. Allen. Clark was one of the men who moved Lincoln, after he was shot, accross the street from Ford's Theatre to Peterson's boarding house.