Mary Todd Lincoln’s séances and alleged spirit communications

Record summary

Mary Todd Lincoln reportedly attended séances after the deaths of her son Willie and, later, President Abraham Lincoln, sometimes using mediums in Washington and at the White House. Accounts connect her grief, Spiritualist networks, and attempts to communicate with the dead. Some details derive from memoirs, newspapers, and later biographies rather than continuous contemporaneous documentation. The material is valuable for comparing apparition and séance claims formed during bereavement, especially where political celebrity, hostile press coverage, and retrospective moral judgments affect the record.