Forever Friday
Art Key
These four diamonds represent Abraham and Mary’s four sons. Only one son lived to adulthood.
President Lincoln’s 11 year old son Willie died in the Lincoln bedroom of the white house from Typhoid fever. Willie was their second child to die. This loss combined with the pressures of being president during a civil war is almost beyond imaging. President Lincoln tied a black ribbon around his iconic stovepipe hat to mark his loss.
Poppies often represent peaceful sleep and death. Some say this is in refence to the sedative effect of the poppy seed.
In in the early 1900s, luminous paint was used in Rolex’s watches so soldiers in WW1 could see the time in the field. The luminous paint was made with radium. Radium was used to cause the markers on Rolex watches to glow until 1963. Collectors beware.
Mrs. Lincoln hosted séances in the White House in effort to contact her lost sons. Stories suggests that she hosted as many as eight séances in the White House and that her husband attended a few of them.
Abraham is wearing classic Tiffany & Co. cufflinks. During the American Civil war, the luxury brand Tiffany & Co. supplied the Union with swords, flags, and surgical supplies. Cavalry sabers marked with Tiffany & Co. can still be found and collected.
Tulips represent an undying, unconditional love for family. Love for a sibling, parent, or your own child.
On Friday April 14th Abraham and Mary went to the Ford theater, where the president was shot by John Wilkes Booth. President Lincoln was carried across the street to a boarding house where he was tended too through the night. He didn’t pass away until the next morning. Saturday, April 15th. Abraham Lincoln was our 16th President.
Booth saved Lincoln. Lincoln’s Eldest son Robert waited for a train one day on a crowded platform. As the train began to move the teen was whisked off his feet and he began falling into the space between the platform and the tracks. Facing certain doom someone from the platform lifted him up by the shirt collar saving his life. That hero was Edwin Booth, brother to John Wilkes Booth the assassin of Roberts Father.
Lincoln’s hat was found on the floor of the Ford Theater, left where he placed it after sittingin his chair. Even though three years had passed since the death of Willie, the hat was still bearing the ribbon of mourning.