Acknowledgement: The Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for providing funding to identify, process, and create finding aids and machine-readable cataloging records for the archival collections in the repository. Special thanks is extended for support given by Dr. Edwin S. Gleaves, Coordinator of the Tennessee Historical Records Advisory Board, of the Tennessee State Library and Archives, and the late John H. Thweatt, Deputy Coordinator.

The Louisa Clark Olmsted Papers contain personal correspondence of the young married couple: Louisa Clark Olmsted and Parmelee Calkins Olmsted, and a letter from "Bessie" to "Dearest sister Lula." The collection includes two daguerreotypes of both Louisa and Parmelee Calkins Olmsted. Her husband was a cousin of General Abner Doubleday, and a manufacturer and seller of maps, whose business was conducted in New York State.

The papers were donated by the daughters of Louisa Clark Olmsted: Mrs. Edgar P. Holdridge and Miss Maud L. Olmsted, who were living in Brooklyn, New York at the time of the presentation.

The correspondence includes a letter (April 24, 1865) written by the young wife to her husband relative to President Lincoln's funeral cortege in Philadelphia. The first hand account describes the huge crowds standing in line before Independence Hall, Philadelphia, to see the remains of Lincoln. She writes that "the crowd was so great, they overpowered the police and forced their way to the Hall in a mass," and cites the help of a stranger who was acquainted with an officer who let them pass through into the Hall. She describes the interior view and gives her impressions of seeing the "poor murdered body" of President Lincoln. A transcript of the letter is available.

Sources: McMurtry, R. Gerald. "Lincoln's Funeral at Philadelphia." Lincoln Herald, 46, ii (June 1944).

Box Two daguerreotypes: Louisa Olmsted, Parmelee Calkins Olmsted 2 items