lincoln forgery

AIRED: Season 6, Episode 4
REPEATED: Season 7, Episode 7
THE DETECTIVE: Wes Cowan
THE PLACE: Chicago and Springfield, Illinois

THE CASE:

A woman in Portland, Oregon owns a bound volume of 19th century sheet music.

The book contains several "Abraham Lincoln" signatures on random pages. At the end of one of the compositions, a handwritten notarized inscription claims the music is a gift from President Lincoln's widow, Mary Todd Lincoln, to Lincoln’s former coachman, William P. Brown, in 1866.

Could the sheet music really be from Lincoln's personal library?

History Detectives explores the years after Lincoln's death to illuminate the true origins of these curious documents.

Lincoln Forgery (PDF File 168K)
(requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

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