Carrying Lincoln to the Petersen House

[Thomas Kearney]

Lincoln Borne By Loving Hands was painted by Carl Bersch, who was sketching the end of the war celebrations on 10th Street when Lincoln was carried to the Petersen House. It was not seen on public display until 1932, when the Lincoln Museum opened on the first floor of the old theater building. After the conversion back to the 1865 appearance, The Lincoln Museum moved to the basement. The painting was put into storage. There was only one display case on the assassination, as the NPS did not want to draw attention to a tragedy in a decade of tragedy. The museum was renovated in 1988 to focus on the assassination and White House life for the Lincolns. The museum layout featured glass cases with different subtopics and one of them was the Death Of Lincoln. The painting was put on display with the pillow from the bed. When the museum was renovated for the bicentennial, Theater director Paul Tetreault felt the painting was vulgar, and the Park Service put the painting into storage. I don't see any vulgarity in it.

I came across an old postcard online that shows a drawing of the painting on display in the Lincoln Museum's first incarnation:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/218122928/v...-president

It looks nothing like the original painting.