Black cloth from the casket of Abraham Lincoln, framed with handwritten provenance and obituary. 3.25 x 2.5 in. (sight), 20.75 x 21.75 in. (frame) Accompanying the cloth is the written caption, “Cloth from / Casket of / Abraham Lincoln / Given to my Father / by the Undertaker / who had charge of / Lincoln’s body after it arrived in N.Y. / Mrs. Fred A. Post.” A further handwritten note identifies the undertaker as Peter Reylea (1815-1896), and that “he was an intimate friend of my father belonging to same Masonic Lodge Americus 535 F. and A.M.” Also accompanied by a clipped newspaper obituary of Reylea, which recounts his role in Lincoln’s Funeral.Upon his assassination on April 14, Lincoln was laid in state and a Washington funeral conducted. On April 21st, his funeral train began a long procession through seven states, roughly following the path of his journey to Washington prior to his first inauguration. The train would make stops at numerous cities before finally arriving at Springfield, Illinois on May 3. Reylea’s obituary recounts his significant role in the New York visitation and funeral on April 25. “He was engaged by a committee of the New York Board of Aldermen on April 21, 1865, to take charge of the obsequies of the martyred President, Abraham Lincoln...He slept neither night nor day until the body of President Lincoln left this city.” The New York commemorations were enormous, an estimated 500,000 people who attempted to visit the President’s body and the funeral procession included 11,000 soldiers and an estimated 75,000 civilian mourners.