Historian finds what appears to be Lincoln casket flower

President Lincoln in November 1863 (Photo By Alexander Gardner – [1], Public Domain)

Will County Historical Society president Sandy Vasko tells The Daily Southtown she found it in a box belonging to the family of James Elwood, a Civil War soldier and former mayor of Joliet, which is outside Chicago.

Vasko found a handwritten message describing the flower as from the 16th president’s casket when “the remains were lying in State … in Washington, D. C. April 20, 1865.”

James Cornelius is the Lincoln curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. He confirmed to her that the flower appeared the “real deal.”

Vasko calls the find the “pinnacle” of her years of volunteering at the Will County Historical Museum and Research Center.