The Assassination of President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Washington D.C., April 14th, 1865

Currier & Ives|Clara Hamilton Harris|Abraham Lincoln|John Wilkes Booth|Mary Todd Lincoln|Henry Reed Rathbone

1865 · Hand-colored lithograph · Drawings and Prints

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.

Artist

Currier & Ives|Clara Hamilton Harris|Abraham Lincoln|John Wilkes Booth|Mary Todd Lincoln|Henry Reed Rathbone

Date

1865

Medium

Hand-colored lithograph

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of Adele S. Colgate, 1962