The Mary Lincoln Ball: A Superb Affair

Mary Lincoln decided to host a ball on February 5, 1862, and issued 700 invitations. It was said that the ball was an event for which those who were not invited claimed to be out of town to avoid the embarrassment of not making the list of invitees. The Washington Star exclaimed in print the next day that the ball was the most superb affair of its kind ever seen in the city. But Mary’s social triumph was undermined by the death on February 20th of the Lincolns’ eleven-year-old son, Willie, who had been upstairs and terribly ill during the ball. After Willie's death, a mourning Mary Lincoln abandoned all social events. There would not be another reception in the White House until almost a year later.