Death in the White House: A Nation Mourns

The President Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site Presents

“Death in the White House: A Nation Mourns”

February 20 – October 31, 2006

Lincoln Log Cabin pattern quilt
79” x 68”
Cotton, wool, silk, polished cotton, and muslin
Hand-pieced
Quilt created using the black fabric bunting used to drape the State House in Indianapolis when Lincoln lay in state on April 30, 1865. The fabric was then obtained by William Robert Latta, who owned a restaurant and confectionery located at 113 S. Illinois Street. His wife, Rebecca, and daughter, Mary Meranda, used the fabric to make the quilt circa 1865-1866. The quilt has been handed down in the family through the line of Alice Latta Peele, daughter of William and Rebecca Latta. Alice gave the quilt to her daughter, Ina Mae Shrock, who passed it on to her great-grand nephew, Gregg Townsend, in 1979. From the collection of Gregg Townsend.

Eleven occupants of the White House: eight Presidents and three First Ladies have died while in office. The exhibit documents the circumstances of those deaths. Artifacts representative of the exhibit include: a replica of Lincoln’s coffin; a quilt created from the black bunting that draped the Indiana State House where Lincoln lay in state April 30, 1865; Mrs. Harding’s and Mrs. Garfield’s mourning dresses and Mrs. McKinley’s hat, each worn at the funerals of their respective husbands; a veiled hat worn at the funeral of Caroline Harrison; the original cards from the funeral flowers for Caroline; copies of newspaper articles and church sermons; photos of processions; other memorabilia.

The exhibit will be part of the daily tours of the Harrison Home and will run through October 31. An exhibit catalog will be available through the museum gift shop for $8.

Presidents that died while in office

William Henry Harrison, President March 4, 1841-April 4, 1841.

His inaugural address lasted one-hour and forty-five minutes in rain and snow.
The cold caught as a result of the chill during his inaugural evolved into pneumonia.
He died in the White House, the shortest tenure of any President.
He was first buried in the Congressional Burying Grounds, Washington D.C.; his body was moved later to North Bend, Ohio.
His funeral cost the United States $3,088.09, $20 of which was paid for shaving and dressing the deceased.

Zachary Taylor, President March 4, 1849-July 9, 1850

Following a July 4^th celebration at the Washington Monument, Taylor ate a large quantity of iced milk and cherries. At least one of the cherries may have been contaminated.
He died in the White House after a five-day illness.
Rumors circulated that he was poisoned.
His body was exhumed in 1991; the subsequent autopsy determined he was not poisoned by arsenic.
Analysis of his hair and fingernails was performed at the Oak Ridge (Tennessee) National Laboratory.
The funeral procession included “Old Whitey,” Taylor’s horse during the Mexican campaigns, parading with an empty saddle and inverted spurs.

He was first buried in the Congressional Burying Grounds, Washington D.C., but his remains were moved later to the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky.

Abraham Lincoln, President March 4, 1861-April 15, 1865

Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a performance of “Our American Cousin” in Ford’s Theatre.
The bullet from the .44 single Derringer split into two pieces upon impact with the back of Lincoln’s head.
He died in the Peterson Boarding House, to which he had been taken, across the street from the theatre.
The public viewed his body on April 18 in the East Room of the White House.
His body lay in state in 14 different cities during the 12 days of the train funeral procession from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois.
Indianapolis, Indiana was one of the cities in which Lincoln’s body lay in state in the State House (April 30, 1865).
The funeral train also contained the remains of Lincoln’s son, Willie, who had died in 1862.
The Lincoln tomb in Illinois now holds the remains of Abraham, his wife Mary, and his sons Willie, Eddie and Tad.

Lincoln Eagle
22” x 29” x 26”
Giltwood and gesso
One of a pair that hung over Lincoln’s casket at the State House
in Indianapolis when Lincoln lay in state on April 30, 1865.
The eagle was presented to the Columbia Club in 1940 by Mrs. John McGraw.
Originally given to John McGraw by Indiana Civil War Governor Oliver P. Morton.
From the collection of the Columbia Club.

James A. Garfield, President March 4-September 19, 1881

Garfield was shot in the back by Charles J. Guiteau on the platform of the Baltimore and Potomac railroad station in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1881.
Two bullets hit Garfield: one in the arm; the other entered his lower back, deflected off a rib and lodged near his pancreas.
He was tended by physicians in the White House until moved to the New Jersey sea shore. Special train track was laid right up to the Francklyn cottage in Elberton, New Jersey.
On September 6, he died in the cottage.
Death was attributed to infection caused by physicians probing his body with bare fingers and un-sterilized instruments attempting to find and remove the bullet.
A special train moved his body from New Jersey to Washington, D.C.
A funeral train transported his body to its final resting place in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio.

Garfield Pass to Rotunda
4 1/2” x 2 3/4”
From the collection of Tom Huston.

William McKinley, President March 4, 1897-September 14, 1901

McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz in the Temple of Music on the grounds of the Pan American Exposition, Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901.
Czolgosz wrapped his right arm in white cloth to look bandaged; the covered arm rested in a sling concealing a gun.
The assassin fired two bullets. One struck a jacket button and did not enter McKinley’s body. The other passed through his stomach, then nicked his left kidney.
In the medical building of the Exposition, doctors performed two operations: one looking for the bullet and the other to remove cloth carried into the abdomen by the bullet.
He died of gangrene developing around the path of the bullet into the stomach and abdomen.
A funeral train moved his body to Washington, D.C., where it was placed in the East Room of the White House.
Another funeral train moved McKinley’s body to Canton Ohio. He was first buried in the Westlawn Cemetery, then moved in 1907 to the McKinley National Memorial Cemetery.

Framed memorial to William McKinley
23 1/2” x 19 1/2”
From the collection of Julian and Sue Ridlen.

Warren G. Harding, President March 4, 1921-August 2, 1923

He died in San Francisco, California, in the Palace Hotel, following a lengthy cross-country goodwill tour by train.
The tour included a trip to Alaska, the first by a President to the area.
On the trip south to California from Alaska he fell ill.
The presidential party checked into the Palace Hotel on July 29, 1923.
Speculation regarding the cause of death included pneumonia, heart attack (he suffered from enlarged heart) and stroke (he suffered from high blood pressure).
Rumors of poison from a variety of sources, including his wife, causing his death circulated throughout the country.
Mrs. Harding refused an autopsy of Harding’s body, so the exact cause of death remains in question.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, President March 4, 1933-April 12, 1945 (the only President elected for four terms)

Roosevelt suffered the effects of polio contracted in 1921.
He enjoyed the “healing powers” of the warm mineral waters in Warm Springs, Georgia, believing that the water helped restore strength in his crippled legs.
Roosevelt built a vacation home near Warm Springs in 1932 which later became known as the “Little White House”.
About noon on April 12, 1945, while reviewing official papers at the “Little White House”, he complained of a “terrific headache” before falling into unconsciousness.
He died at the Warm Springs cottage in mid-afternoon of a “massive cerebral hemorrhage.”
Eleanor, his wife, was called but not told of her husband’s death. She delivered a speech in Washington, D.C. A second call asked her to come immediately to the White House where the President’s press secretary told her of the death.
A funeral train moved the body to the White House where a service was held in the East Room.
Roosevelt did not wish his crippled body to be publicly viewed in the Rotunda of the Capitol and Eleanor adhered to his request.
Another train took his remains to Hyde Park, New York, for burial at Rose Garden Cemetery at Springwood.

House of Representatives ticket to funeral
2 11/16” x 5 1/2”
From the collection of Tom Huston.

John F. Kennedy, President January 20, 1961-November 22, 1963

Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before noon on November 22 while in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.
Texas Governor Connally, riding in the same open car, also was shot.
A little more than one hour after the shooting, doctors at the trauma center in Parkland Hospital concluded that efforts to revive the President were useless. Last rites were administered and he was pronounced dead.
His body lay in state in the Rotunda of the Capitol until November 25, 1963.
The funeral procession carried the caisson past the White House to St. Matthew’s Cathedral and then to Arlington National Cemetery where he was buried.
Black Jack, a riderless horse, followed behind the caisson, carrying Kennedy’s riding boots reversed in the stirrups to mark the death of the rider.
An eternal flame burns in Arlington in his memory.

First Ladies that died in the White House

Letitia Tyler, First Lady, April 4, 1841-September 10, 1842

Letitia suffered her first stroke, which left her partially paralyzed, one year before her husband John Tyler became William Henry Harrison’s Vice President.
Following the election, Tyler remained in his home in Williamsburg, Virginia, to be near Letitia. On the death of the President, April 4, 1841, he left his Williamsburg home for the White House.
Letitia and her children joined President Tyler in Washington D.C. in May 1841, where she directed the affairs at the White House. She did so from her private bedroom suite.
Her only public appearance in the state rooms of the White House while First Lady was on the occasion of the marriage of her daughter, Elizabeth, on February 7, 1842.
Her second stroke occurred during late summer of 1842, and she died in the White House on September 10, 1842.
She lay in state in the East Room of the White House before burial at Cedar Grove Cemetery, New Kent County, Virginia.

Caroline Scott Harrison, First Lady April 4, 1889-October 25, 1892

Caroline supervised four generations of Harrisons living together in the White House: eleven people, five rooms, one bathroom.
She helped found the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Caroline supervised the total refurbishing of the White House.
During the winter of 1891-1892, bronchial infections frequently interfered with her social and political obligations.
In March of 1892 she developed catarrhal pneumonia, followed by hemorrhaging of the lungs and was moved to a three-bedroom cottage on Loon Lake in the Adirondack Mountains in July.
Following a brief rally, her doctors diagnosed her condition as tuberculosis. On September 20, she returned to the White House where she died on October 25.
A private service was held in the East Room of the White House.
Her remains were taken to Indianapolis where a funeral service was held at the First Presbyterian Church.
After the service, the cortege proceeded past the Harrison’s Delaware Street home before going on to Crown Hill Cemetery for burial.

Ellen Axson Wilson, First Lady March 4, 1913-August 6, 1914

On March 1, 1914, Ellen Wilson fell ill in the White House. She was diagnosed with Bright’s Disease, a kidney ailment for which there was no cure.
In August, as her condition deteriorated, she told her husband, “I would go away more peacefully if my Alley Bill was passed by Congress.” The Senate passed the bill that day with a promise from the House that it would pass the bill the next day. (Note: The Alley-clearance bill sought better housing particularly for black laborers in Washington, D.C.)
She died in the White House less than an hour after being told of the Senate’s action and the House’s promise.
Private services were held in the East Room of the White House.
A funeral train moved her body to Rome, Georgia, where she was interred with her parents in Historic Myrtle Hill Cemetery.

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