LINCOLN ASSASSINATION MUSEUM
Washington DC

This small superb museum in the theater was a surprise. We had no idea there were so many artifacts. Lincoln has become a pop idol in American culture, almost unreachable. But this basement room makes it all seem real in a way a giant shrine like the Lincoln Memorial cannot.

We had come from Seacoast NH to verify our story of Lucy Hale of Dover, NH who was fiancée to assassin John Wilkes Booth on the day he killed the president. Inside this glass case are the photos of five women Booth was carrying when he was shot after a 12-day manhunt. Lucy or "Bessie" was the daughter of NH abolitionist Senator JP Hale. And suddenly, there she was. Her photo was in the exhibit case (second from the left) though we could not get a decent photo through the glass case.

Artifacts in the museum include Booth's derringer that he used against Lincoln, plus the knife he also wielded before he leapt from the presidential box to the stage breaking his ankle. Lincoln's clothing, the door to the presidential box and other items are here also. The actual bullet is not here. The rocker in which Lincoln was sitting was purchased by Henry Ford for his own museum in Michigan. Among the most haunting items are the white cloth hoods placed over the heads of the conspirators during their execution by hanging. The chilling event was recorded by early photographers. Booth was shot by his pursuers after a 12-day search.

The Ford Theater souvenir shop is downstairs in the Lincoln Museum, a tasteful store with a wide array of books on Lincoln. The selling of Lincoln has been going on since the Civil War. This souvenir plate is actually part of an extensive exhibit of coins, medals, playing cards, bottles - everything you can imagine with Abe's famous visage. It's disturbing to see John Wilkes Booth books, one of the nation's most despicable characters, sold side-by-side with Lincoln volumes. But we need to remember that, before the assassination, Booth was a true stage star at Ford's Theater and elsewhere. He has been called the country's second most photographed man of his era. Guess who was #1. – JDR

OUTSIDE LINK: Ford’s Theatre Historical Info