[Silver Service] This Gorham coin silver service was probably presented to Mary Todd Lincoln while she was first lady. Each piece has an engraved crest--probably an adaptation of the Todd family crest--on one side.

A highly educated Kentucky woman, Mrs. Lincoln believed it was her duty to bolster the Union's morale by establishing a highly visible social life in the Capital and refurnishing the White House. But partially because she was a Southerner, she became the target of vicious criticism in the wartime Capital.

Courtesy of the National Museum of American History, gift of Lincoln Isham, great grandson of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, 1957
Mary Todd Lincoln's Silver Service, monogrammed "MTL"; about 1859, Gorham Silver Company

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