Lincoln Home Historic Furnishings Report

SECTION E: RECOMMENDED FURNISHINGS (continued)

KITCHEN-PORCH-STOREROOM: INTRODUCTION

Mary Lincoln's Springfield kitchen should contain furnishings that she accumulated between 1845 and 1861. Suggested furnishings in this plan are based on records of purchases of kitchen items made by the Lincolns at local Springfield stores, recommendations from a popular nineteenth-century housekeeping book that Mary Lincoln purchased, and information about kitchen furnishings manufactured in Illinois at the time.

By the late 1850s, the appearance of the kitchen (particularly in city homes like this one in Springfield) had changed with the advent of the cooking stove. Walls that had once been dark and smoky could be maintained white or a light color. Records show that Lincoln hired John Roll in 1850 to whitewash walls. [15] In general, rooms were less smoky because the cooking fireplace was closed-up. Curtains were now being used to brighten city kitchen windows and the ones in Mary Lincoln's kitchen should be made simply of check cloth or calico. Records show that the Lincolns purchased check cloth and calico in appropriate quantities for kitchen curtains. [16]

Lincoln scholars have written that Mary Lincoln was a woman of exceptional taste and that she delighted in furnishing her home in style. [17] There is a record of her purchasing Miss Leslie's Lady's House Book as well as Miss Leslie's Directions for Cookery in Its Various Branches, [18] popular books on homemaking. Mary Lincoln was a frugal household manager and economized in the kitchen. In the nineteenth century, it was not uncommon to relegate older furnishings to the kitchen; and it is suggested that the Lincolns would have had some older furnishings (from their early years of marriage) in this room.