Lincoln Home National Historic Site - Mary's Wedding Ring (U.S. National Park Service)

When historians refer to the wedding ring that Abraham Lincoln gave to Mary on November 4, 1842, they usually claim that the inscription read "Love is eternal." However, according to the Chicago Tribune edition of July 18, 1882, there were more than three words engraved.

Prior to her death, Mary removed her wedding ring from her finger. On July 16, 1882, in her sister Elizabeth Edwards' house, the same house where she had married Abraham Lincoln forty years before, she passed away. The following day, some of Elizabeth's friends found the ring and discovered that the inscription read, "A.L. to Mary, Nov. 4, 1842. Love is Eternal." The ring was subsequently placed on Mary's finger, where it had been for forty years, and was buried with her remains in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois.

l Back to History and Culture l