Charles Gunther purchased a comb and brush together with the cloak attributed to Mary Lincoln from W.H. Lowdermilk & Company, a Washington, D.C. book and antiquities dealer, in 1890.

A notarized affidavit accompanied the bill of sale, signed by Elizabeth Keckly:

Comb used by Pres. Lincoln during his stay in the White House.

Elizabeth Keckly was Mrs. Lincoln's dressmaker and closest confidante.

She attended Mrs. Lincoln at the White House for five weeks after the president died, and then escorted Mary to her new home in Chicago. Keckly's 1868 memoir Behind the Scenes describes how Mrs. Lincoln gave her several mementos as Mary packed to leave the White House:

In packing, Mrs. Lincoln gave away everything intimately connected with the President, as she said that she could not bear to be reminded of the past... I received the comb and brush that Mr. Lincoln used during his residence at the White House. With this same comb and brush I had often combed his head. When almost ready to go down to a reception, he would turn to me with a quizzical look: "Well, madam Elizabeth, will you brush my bristles down to-night?" "Yes, Mr. Lincoln." Then he would take his seat in an easy-chair and sit quietly while I arranged his hair. As may well be imagined, I was only too glad to accept this comb and brush from the hands of Mrs. Lincoln." (KECKLEY)

The cloak, bonnet, comb, and brush, the glove worn at the first reception after the second inaugural, and Mr. Lincoln's overshoes, also given to me, I have since donated for the benefit of Wilberforce University, a colored college near Xenia, Ohio, destroyed by fire on the night that the President was murdered. (KECKLEY)

A 1969 search for these artifacts at Wilberforce University was unsuccessful. (OSTENDORF) Keckly lists all of these items on the Lowdermilk inventory that accompanied Gunther's purchase.