Drawing of Booth Body

[John E.]

Just in case the following item gets brought up later on in this thread, let me address it now. Recently, a newspaper article from 1893 detailing the discovery of a treasure trove of old glass plate negatives by J. Porter - a former Gardner employee, was offered as "A possible solution to the mystery of: what happened to the negative of the post-mortem exam".

Because Lawrence Gardner served as his father's assistant and was familiar with the photos his father took, he was asked by a newspaper to comment on whether any of the negatives may have belonged to Alexander.

Lawrence had this to say (unless he was lying):

"Regarding the negative of J. Wilkes Booth, I will say that any negative Mr. Porter has is a copy, for Mr. Booth NEVER HAD A PICTURE TAKEN IN THIS CITY. There are two pictures of Booth, one in a sitting posture and the other standing. Both are copies of negatives taken in Baltimore. One is on exhibition in Hancock's saloon, and the other, which may be the one discovered by Mr. Porter, was copied by my father."

I find the renewed interest in the Booth autopsy photo - by certain folks in the research community- more than coincidental as my presentation at the Surratt Conference approaches. This is terrific! I only have about an hour to speak and this forum has allowed me to address these opposing arguments in more detail.

Thanks to Roger Norton for this fantastic site.