The Assassination of President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Washington D.C., April 14th, 1865
This lithograph records the shocking moment when Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. As a famous actor, Booth had free access to Ford’s Theatre and had gone there to collect his mail on April 14, when he learned of the president’s intention to attend a play that evening. Booth was the leader of a group of pro-Confederate conspirators determined to prevent the South’s defeat and, when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, they decided to kill Lincoln and other key Union leaders, hoping to destabilize the war effort and allow Confederate armies still in the field to rally. Major Henry Rathbone, who rises at left to restrain Booth, was subsequently stabbed but survived. Lincoln died the next morning.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Assassination of President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Washington D.C., April 14th, 1865
- Publisher: Currier & Ives (American, active New York, 1857–1907)
- Sitter: Abraham Lincoln (American, Hardin County, Kentucky 1809–1865 Washington, D.C.)
- Sitter: Mary Todd Lincoln (American, Lexington, Kentucky 1818–1882 Springfield, Massachusetts)
- Sitter: John Wilkes Booth (American, Bel Air, Maryland 1838–1865 Port Royal, Virginia)
- Sitter: Henry Reed Rathbone (American, 1837–1911)
- Sitter: Clara Hamilton Harris (American, 1834–1883)
- Date: 1865
- Medium: Hand-colored lithograph
- Dimensions: Image: 7 13/16 × 12 1/8 in. (19.8 × 30.8 cm)
Sheet (irregular): 10 1/16 × 13 15/16 in. (25.6 × 35.4 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Bequest of Adele S. Colgate, 1962
- Object Number: 63.550.457
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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