Dr. Charles Sabin Taft, the second doctor to reach the Presidential Box, frantically searched for the president’s wound. He removed this button from Lincoln’s shirt sleeve. Taft was also a family friend of the Lincolns, so Mary Lincoln gave him the cufflink as a memento. From that point, the cufflink passed through multiple hands. From Taft’s son it went to Lincoln collector Major William Lambert. After Lambert, the gold and onyx cufflink had three other owners, ultimately becoming part of the collection of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
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