A Pencil Letter to a Dead Son Is Still in BOX THREE. Weeks Later, His Mother Became First Lady

A Pencil Letter to a Dead Son Is Still in BOX THREE. Weeks Later, His Mother Became First Lady The White House is the safest home in America, guarded and watched from every side. But five women who ran it lost a son on the way into it or inside it, and the house did not stop for a single one of them. In January 1853, an axle broke outside Andover, Massachusetts, and the president-elect's eleven-year-old son was the only person on the train who died. His mother refused to attend the inauguration. In February 1862, Mary Lincoln's polka played in the East Room while Willie burned with fever upstairs. In 1924, a blister from the White House tennis court killed Calvin Coolidge Jr. in a week. In 1963, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy lived thirty-nine hours, and three months later his mother was in Dallas. And in Concord, one letter survives, written in pencil, to a boy who was already dead. It is still in box three. Chapters: 00:00 — Andover, January 1853 02:49 — ACT I — THE RISE 06:27 — ACT II — THE FACADE 10:34 — ACT III — THE CRACK 16:55 — ACT IV — THE RECKONING 21:34 — ACT V — THE AFTERMATH Source Material Visual material used in this production is obtained from publicly accessible archives, including Wikimedia Commons and the Library of Congress. Copyright & Fair Use Notice This channel incorporates copyrighted material under the principles of Fair Use as recognized by U.S. law. Under Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act, certain uses of copyrighted works such as for analysis, commentary, educational purposes, research, and reporting are permitted without prior authorization from the copyright holder. Sources New Hampshire Historical Society, letter from Jane Pierce to her deceased son, January 30, 1853 — https://www.nhhistory.org/object/2863... Abraham Lincoln Online, The Death and Funeral of Willie Lincoln — https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/... Shapell Manuscript Foundation, Calvin Coolidge Jr.'s Death — https://www.shapell.org/historical-pe... White House Historical Association, John F. Kennedy Funeral — https://www.whitehousehistory.org/joh... C-SPAN First Ladies, Jane Pierce and Harriet Lane, transcript — https://static.c-spanvideo.org/firstL... #documentary #history #firstladies #whitehouse