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I recently swung by the Chicago History Museum to meet with Michael Hall, who I find in a dimly lit workspace filled with...
Several different mannequins, lots of scatterings of underpinnings, head forms.
Hall is a mount maker, meaning it's his job to ready mannequins across the museum, including for the upcoming exhibit, Threads of a Nation, featuring clothing associated with Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, George and Martha Washington, and John Adams.
It's really cool to see the difference between like how Adams had his suits made versus the ones that Washington had made.
Washington was much more plain spoken.
But one of the real standouts of the show is a simple black velvet cape adorned with a silk braided cord.
As I meet collections manager Jessica Pouchoir, Hall rolls the cape into view.
Okay, I want to know about this cape that Michael wheeled out here.
The wet with blood.
This,
Hall tells me, was worn by Mary Todd Lincoln, purportedly to Ford's Theater the night of President Lincoln's assassination.
Hall points to the coat's bottom edge, where in the right light, there are visible splatter stains.
So there's like some here.
It's a little bit difficult to kind of see, but for the most part, it's like there's some splatters here.
They're more prominent.
But as Hall acknowledges, it also underscores just how hard it can be to authenticate these kinds of items.
We don't know 100% what each of the little splatters are on throughout the cape because there's a few sections.
Instead, they are leaning on what they say is well-vetted provenance.
I recently swung by the Chicago History Museum to meet with Michael Hall, who I find in a dimly lit workspace filled with...
Several different mannequins, lots of scatterings of underpinnings, head forms.
Hall is a mount maker, meaning it's his job to ready mannequins across the museum, including for the upcoming exhibit, Threads of a Nation, featuring clothing associated with Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, George and Martha Washington, and John Adams.
It's really cool to see the difference between like how Adams had his suits made versus the ones that Washington had made.
Washington was much more plain spoken.
But one of the real standouts of the show is a simple black velvet cape adorned with a silk braided cord.
As I meet collections manager Jessica Pouchoir, Hall rolls the cape into view.
Okay, I want to know about this cape that Michael wheeled out here.
The wet with blood.
This,
Hall tells me, was worn by Mary Todd Lincoln, purportedly to Ford's Theater the night of President Lincoln's assassination.
Hall points to the coat's bottom edge, where in the right light, there are visible splatter stains.
So there's like some here.
It's a little bit difficult to kind of see, but for the most part, it's like there's some splatters here.
They're more prominent.
But as Hall acknowledges, it also underscores just how hard it can be to authenticate these kinds of items.
We don't know 100% what each of the little splatters are on throughout the cape because there's a few sections.
Instead, they are leaning on what they say is well-vetted provenance.
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