'Hellcat or Helpmate': The Mary Todd Lincoln Saga

Like her husband, Mary Todd Lincoln lost her mother as a child. But whereas Abraham's father remarried a nurturing woman, Mary Todd Lincoln's father did not. "Mary had the wealth but the wicked stepmother. He had the nice stepmother but no wealth," says Snyder.

Mary Todd Lincoln doesn't look like a modern beauty. But in her time she was a catch because of her vivaciousness, her wit, her intelligence and her well-connected family. "She was the bright belle from a wealthy family. She saw the greatness in him," says Taper, the world's leading Lincoln collector. "I think they're a great match." She looks big, but she was five-foot-four (to her husband's six-foot-four) with a 20-inch waist when corseted. Though she lived in Lexington, Ky., she visited Springfield often, since her sister lived there. It was there that she met Abraham, who married her when he was 33 years old, on Nov. 4, 1842, and gave her a wedding band that said "Love is eternal." (The ring remains on her finger in her grave.)

Their first son, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born on Aug. 1, 1843. (He later went to Harvard, married a senator's daughter, served as U.S. secretary of war, considered a run for the presidency himself—and had his mother committed to Bellevue.) He was the only child to live past age 18. The Lincolns' other three sons died of bacterial infections. Their second son, Edward Baker Lincoln, was born on March 10, 1846, and died on Feb. 1, 1850. Their third son, William Wallace Lincoln, was born on Dec. 21, 1850, and died on Feb. 20, 1862, while his parents were in the White House. And their fourth son, Thomas (nicknamed "Tad" because his body looked like a tadpole's), was born on April 4, 1853, and died on July 15, 1871.

Medicine may have contributed to Mary Todd Lincoln's odd behavior after her husband's and Tad's deaths. In 1873 her doctor treated her sleeplessness with chloral hydrate—which can produce hallucinations and insomnia. (She may also have been suffering from postmenopausal symptoms.) She spent several years living abroad and ultimately died on July 16, 1882, at the age of 63.

Why the special exhibit for Mary Todd Lincoln? "A lot of people may not know much about her," explains Rick Beard, executive director of the library and museum. Indeed, Karrah Martin, a former schoolteacher from Summerville, S.C., who visited last week with her husband and two-year-old daughter, says, "I had no idea there was any controversy. I didn't know about her big spending habits."

Museum curators wanted to "dig down deep" and "lay out as much evidence" as they could, says Beard. Whether Mary Todd Lincoln was crazy or not, she and her husband were deeply in love. "It was by all accounts a close and loving marriage," says Beard. "[And] no one has ever suggested Lincoln was an easy man to be around."