Rare Lincoln Artifacts Donated to Presidential Library

A rare artifact of Abraham Lincoln’s death has a new home at the presidential library.

Scholar Ronald Rietvald says his donation of a picture of the 16th president in his coffin is the only know photograph before he was laid to rest at Oak Ridge Cematary.

Rietvald says he found the photo in an attic back in the 1950s and talked to a Springfield resident who saw the president in repose.

“I met with Fleetwood Lindsey of Springfield.  He was the last to see the body before it was buried under 10 feet of cement,” Rietvald says.

Rietvald also donated a book that Lincoln apparently read on his way to Washington DC.  The collection is available for viewing at the presidential library.