Mary Todd Lincoln

Here is Mary Todd Lincoln. There are a couple of places I'd love to do over again (lower hand; bosom), but generally I am pleased.


I don't know if I captured the strangeness of the dress. It's very severe- on the elbows, the pleats protrude like plate armor. It was almost certainly designed by Elizabeth Keckly.

Keckly was the leading D.C. seamstress of the the day, designing gowns for Mary Anne Randolph Custis Lee (wife of Robert E.) and Varina Davis (wife of Jefferson). She had been born a slave and managed to purchase her own freedom.

During the White House years, Keckly was Mary Todd Lincoln's only seamstress and also one of the first lady's closest confidantes. They remained so, until 1868, when Keckly published a tell-all autobiography, Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty years a slave, and four years in the White House. After that, Mrs. Lincoln called her "Slick Lizzy".