The Gertrude Polk Brown Lecture Series
An Inconvenient Widow: The Torment, Trial, and Triumph of Mary Todd Lincoln
By Lois Romano
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Presented by the Filson Historical Society.
Mary Lincoln was at the center of politics at a time when society’s expectations for women were rigid and circumscribed. The product of Southern aristocracy, she grew up among an influential clan of politicians and elites who founded Lexington, Kentucky. Mary’s early exposure to the male-dominated world of politics instilled in her a keen political acumen and a fierce ambition. Proclaiming as a child that she was destined to become the wife of a president, she played a crucial role in boosting her husband to greatness.
But her hopes for a triumphant experience at the pinnacle of power were lost to the Civil War and unfathomable family tragedies. Still, Mary persevered. She steadfastly supported the Union war effort, visited encampments, tended to wounded soldiers, and generously donated money and gifts to refugees from slavery. She was an unconventional, larger-than-life character who dressed too ostentatiously, grieved too publicly, suffered a shopping addiction, and seemed unable or unwilling to corral her emotions, her temper, and her opinions. She made enemies—influential men who wrote her story for her, often unfairly. After Lincoln was assassinated, she was all but abandoned by the nation he had given his life to defend and preserve.
Former Washington Post writer and columnist Lois Romano rectifies the tortured legacy of Mary Todd Lincoln, who was failed at nearly every turn in her widowhood—by her family, by her government, by medical professionals ill-equipped to diagnose her mental illness, and finally, by history. Romano draws on hundreds of archives, letters, and memoirs to provide the most complete portrait—of not simply of an inconvenient widow, but of a brilliant and flawed woman, who possessed uncommon tenacity in the face of extraordinary adversity and personal torment, and helped launch one of America’s greatest presidents.
Lois Romano is a long-time national political journalist who was an editor, columnist, and reporter for The Washington Post and POLITICO, and who has covered numerous first ladies.
The Gertrude Polk Brown Lecture Series is presented by the Filson Historical Society, one of Kentucky’s largest privately funded historical societies. Initiated in 1993 as a memorial to the life of Gertrude Polk Brown, this series is made possible by the generosity of her children, grandchildren, and other close relatives and has brought internationally recognized historians to Louisville. More than 43,500 citizens have learned more about the significant stories of our region, nation, and world because of the Gertrude Polk Brown lectures.
For more information about the Filson, please visit filsonhistorical.org.
Information on how to watch a livestream of the event will be included with tickets.
The Gertrude Polk Brown Lecture Series
Presented by the Filson Historical Society.
Mary Lincoln was at the center of politics at a time when society’s expectations for women were rigid and circumscribed. The product of Southern aristocracy, she grew up among an influential clan of politicians and elites who founded Lexington, Kentucky. Mary’s early exposure to the male-dominated world of politics instilled in her a keen political acumen and a fierce ambition. Proclaiming as a child that she was destined to become the wife of a president, she played a crucial role in boosting her husband to greatness.
But her hopes for a triumphant experience at the pinnacle of power were lost to the Civil War and unfathomable family tragedies. Still, Mary persevered. She steadfastly supported the Union war effort, visited encampments, tended to wounded soldiers, and generously donated money and gifts to refugees from slavery. She was an unconventional, larger-than-life character who dressed too ostentatiously, grieved too publicly, suffered a shopping addiction, and seemed unable or unwilling to corral her emotions, her temper, and her opinions. She made enemies—influential men who wrote her story for her, often unfairly. After Lincoln was assassinated, she was all but abandoned by the nation he had given his life to defend and preserve.
Former Washington Post writer and columnist Lois Romano rectifies the tortured legacy of Mary Todd Lincoln, who was failed at nearly every turn in her widowhood—by her family, by her government, by medical professionals ill-equipped to diagnose her mental illness, and finally, by history. Romano draws on hundreds of archives, letters, and memoirs to provide the most complete portrait—of not simply of an inconvenient widow, but of a brilliant and flawed woman, who possessed uncommon tenacity in the face of extraordinary adversity and personal torment, and helped launch one of America’s greatest presidents.
Lois Romano is a long-time national political journalist who was an editor, columnist, and reporter for The Washington Post and POLITICO, and who has covered numerous first ladies.
The Gertrude Polk Brown Lecture Series is presented by the Filson Historical Society, one of Kentucky’s largest privately funded historical societies. Initiated in 1993 as a memorial to the life of Gertrude Polk Brown, this series is made possible by the generosity of her children, grandchildren, and other close relatives and has brought internationally recognized historians to Louisville. More than 43,500 citizens have learned more about the significant stories of our region, nation, and world because of the Gertrude Polk Brown lectures.
For more information about the Filson, please visit filsonhistorical.org.
Information on how to watch a livestream of the event will be included with tickets.
An Inconvenient Widow: The Torment, Trial, and Triumph of Mary Todd Lincoln
By Lois Romano
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