Pictorial representations Lincoln’s deathbed

[loetar44]

I know that most of the pictorial representations (paintings, prints, sketches, photomontages) of Lincoln’s death are not accurate. Officials gathered around the bedside. In all some 55 individuals visited the dying president – but not all on the same time, as most artists suggest in their images. I like the word “rubber room” , meaning the phenomenon that the modest chamber in Petersen’s House grew larger and larger to an unrealistically expanded and overcrowded death chamber. The room could not have accommodate more than 6 or 7 persons at once, but the John H. Littlefield engraving (1866) depict a lot more. My question.... there are two versions of the Littlefield engraving, one with 24 persons and one with 25 persons. Does anybody know why? I have found a key to 24 persons, but who is 25 (see red arrow)? Who can help?

   

   

BTW: I understand what the artist was intending to do: record as much as any witnesses who had spent even a few minutes in the room. And this is not the largest of Lincoln’s deathbed scenes, that was Alonzo Chappel’s painting depicting 47 persons.