One of the finest presenters of Mary Todd Lincoln in the country today, Sally Mummey portrays a lively, accurate, and well-researched Mrs. Lincoln. She brings to life the many facets of this unconventional woman who was perhaps the most misunderstood of her times.

As a living historian, Sally Mummey illuminates the complicated contrasts of our most famous and historically significant First Lady. With lectures and storytelling, authentic speeches, and informal and spontaneous dialogue, Miss Mummey relates successfully to every audience, from youngsters to adults.

Sally Mummey’s portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln vivifies this First Lady, a modern woman of the 1860s. Her clothing is authentically reproduced, from the corset to the parasol. She imparts details of Mary Lincoln’s life, through actual events and storytelling, from her childhood and early marriage to slave auctions and the Underground Railroad, from her political origins to life in the White House, from the status of Victorian women to inspirational tributes to the troops. Her presentations appeal to audiences of all ages, as she remains in character throughout her performance. In effect, Sally Mummey becomes Mary Todd Lincoln.

 
AN UNCONVENTIONAL WOMAN
The narrow and limited confines of the Victorian world could not hold the complexities of Mary Todd Lincoln.

With first-hand knowledge of slavery from her childhood in Kentucky, Mary Lincoln grew into a strong advocate for abolition. She was considered an intellectual equal in the company of well-educated men, in an era when a woman’s success in life was measured only by marriage and motherhood.

With her wits, she battled senators and diplomats; she brought generals, newspapermen, and scholars to a standstill, while her own brothers fought against the same Union her husband was so valiantly trying to save.

Mrs. Lincoln’s outspokenness, ambition, and drive often provoked disdain from her husband’s Cabinet and Washington’s social elite. These characteristics made her especially vulnerable to criticisms of the press and the scrutiny of later historians who would write about her with distortion.

Only a resolute woman – with an intense will – could have survived such a devastating onslaught from her contemporaries.
      Mary Todd Lincoln, Lincoln's First Inaugural Ball
            March 1861 - photograph by Matthew Brady
 

SALLY MUMMEY
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Sally Mummey grew up surrounded by history. She comes to living history through reenacting, beginning in the mid-1980s. Early interests included 17th Century colonial America, but she soon shifted to Civil War reenacting. Ancestors from both her paternal and maternal families served in the Civil War.

When an Abraham Lincoln presenter, Phillip Chetwynd, met Sally Mummey, he saw someone who could portray Mrs. Lincoln accurately, both in stature and in passion. He asked Sally if she’d consider the role. Consider it she did, and Mary Todd Lincoln debuted in 1991.

Massive amounts of research, still ongoing, have resulted in this genuine portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln - devoted wife and mother, embattled First Lady, and ruined widow.