After the assassination, Mary Lincoln closely monitored everything written about her late husband and her family. A contemporary said no mention of the late president or herself escaped her notice.

She borrowed a copy of “The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln,” written by New York Times editor Henry J. Raymond. After reading it, she wrote to artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter, saying it was the most correct history of her husband.

Source: Acts of Remembrance: Mary Todd Lincoln and Her Husband’s Memory by Jennifer L. Bach in the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association