The collection consists of correspondence, photographs of Thompson, documents, and newspaper clippings concerning Henry Thompson. Also included are a United States flag that was flown over the U.S. Treasury Building upon the death of Lincoln, a diary which includes Thompson's eye-witness account of the shooting of Lincoln, and a piece of lace from the curtain where Lincoln laid in state.
Henry Hunn Thompson.
Collection Overview
Henry Hunn Thompson was born in Pompey, NY in 1824 and died in Passaic, NJ in 1918. He was educated at Hamilton College in New York. In 1863 he was appointed chief clerk in the office of the U.S. Treasury, while serving in this office he witnessed the shooting of Abraham Lincoln. At the close of the Civil War, Thompson resigned his treasury office and organized a National Bank in N.C. In 1877 he became cashier of the Erie Railroad and later became a cashier at the People's Bank and Trust Company of Passaic, NJ where he remained until his death.
The collection was donated to St. Lawrence University in 1961 by Ralph Douglas Gentles through Atwood Manley.