Mary Todd Lincoln had seances in the White House

Mary Ann Todd Lincoln 

She was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

She was the First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.

She was born on December 13, 1818, in Lexington, Kentucky to Robert Smith Todd, a banker, and Elizabeth "Eliza" (Parker) Todd.

She and Lincoln had four sons together, only one of whom outlived her.

During Lincoln's years as an Illinois circuit lawyer, Mary was often left alone for months at a time to raise their children and run the household

During her White House years, she often visited hospitals around Washington to give flowers and fruit to wounded soldiers. 

She wrote letters for them to send to their loved ones.

From time to time, she accompanied Lincoln on military visits to the field.

She was responsible for hosting many social functions.

After Abraham Lincoln's son Willy died of Typhoid Fever in 1862, Mary Lincoln had seances in the White House.

She was hoping to communicate with him.

Several of her half-brothers served in the Confederate Army and were killed in action.

One brother served the Confederacy as a surgeon.

Mary firmly supported her husband in his quest to save the Union and was strictly loyal to his policies.

She suffered from severe headaches, described as migraines, throughout her adult life, as well as depression.

Her headaches became more frequent after she suffered a head injury in a carriage accident during her White House years.

A history of mood swings, fierce temper, public outbursts throughout Lincoln's presidency, as well as excessive spending.

It was also suggested that she suffered from bipolar disorder.

Some doctors say that she had pernicious anemia.

She witnessed her Abraham Lincoln's fatal shooting when they were together in the President's Box at Ford's Theater.

After the shooting, she received messages of condolence from all over the world.

Many she attempted to answer personally. 

To Queen Victoria she wrote:

I have received the letter which Your Majesty has had the kindness to write. I am deeply grateful for this expression of tender sympathy, coming as they do, from a heart which from its own sorrow, can appreciate the intense grief I now endure.

She returned to Illinois and lived in Chicago with her sons.

The United States Congress granted Mrs. Lincoln a life pension of $3,000 a year.

She had lobbied hard, writing numerous letters to Congress and urging patrons to petition on her behalf.

She insisted that she deserved a pension just as much as the widows of soldiers, as she portrayed her husband as a fallen commander.

She was briefly involuntarily institutionalized for psychiatric disease ten years after her husband's murder, but later retired to the home of her sister.

On July 15, 1882, she became unconscious and died the next morning of a stroke.