The Spur Question

[L Verge]

Yesterday, I rec'd an email from a woman questioning the provenance of the Booth spurs that are on display at Ford's Theatre and at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Our research librarian quickly went to the James O. Hall files and produced the following reply (which, honestly, does not give a conclusive answer:

Our cornerstone collection of materials compiled by James O. Hall has a file devoted to the subject of spurs attributed to Booth. His note on the front of the file sums up his conclusion: “There are too many Booth spurs in the several references. So this file is more to satisfy my curiosity. I have no idea what happened to the spur said to have been found on the stage of Ford’s, or whether it was indeed Booth’s.”

Some details-
• How many spurs are there?
o A legitimate spur, location not confirmed at present, reported on by the NY Daily Tribune on April 17, 1865, and in the possession of Washington Superintendent of Police, A.C. Richards, who notified the government he would turn it over when needed (see document on microfilm reel M-599, reel 2, frame 0797, National Archives (our library has this microfilm also). Where did it end up??? It appears to have been in the government’s possession at the time of the trial and again listed in 1942, only to “disappear” again (see note below re Exhibit 21).
o The Ford’s Spur- The one on display at Ford’s (Left side spur)- supposedly bought by Oldroyd from the Mudds (Mrs. Dr. S.A. Mudd, precisely)- but as Ms. Anderson at Ford’s tells us, this story lacks documentation.
o The Ream’s Spur- The one at the Naval Academy with confirmed provenance- broken in 2 pieces and picked up at Ford’s by a Union solider who welded them together poorly, and given to the museum by a collateral descendent in honor of a vet killed in Korea. This is likely the spur from when Booth became entangled with the Treasury Guards flag at Ford’s (so the story goes).
o The spur brought back from the Garrett place by EJ Conger (See Poore, Vol. I, pp318-319; and Trial of John H. Surratt, Vol. I, p 314- we have both volumes here at our library)-

• So it seems there are several places he may have lost a spur- at Fords, at Mudd’s, and at Garrett’s.
• The file contains a photo of the Ream’s spur at the US Naval Academy, take on 9/23/1973 by John C. Brennan outside of the display case and sent to Mr. Hall.
• The file contains photocopies of pictures of the Ford’s spur- I’m sure the link provided by Ms. Anderson is a better picture than that.
• It is worth noting that at the trial of the conspirators, exhibit #21 is listed as a “brass spur.” It is not included on the list of exhibit/ trial items turned over to Ford’s Theater (referred to as the Lincoln Museum) on Feb 5, 1940. Mr. Hall made the observation that the spur disappears from the 1908 War Dept listing of Booth items in its possession, and then reappears in the 1942 listing. Hall made the conclusions that the original spur was lost or misplaced by 1908 and the one listed in 1942 was the one purchased by Oldroyd.

The core of the trouble comes down to too many spurs with too little proven provenance. Also at issue is that the Ford’s and Ream’s spurs (as you note) are so dissimilar that they would not be worn together at the same time. The question was even raised as to whether or not Booth would have worn one or two spurs that evening. Mr. Hall’s file is not terribly thick (1/4 inch or so) but does contain some pretty interesting details about his search for the spur truth and correspondence along the way (going all the way back to 1946, believe it or not!).

The following is the reply that we rec'd from Laura Anderson, Curator at Ford's Theatre, regarding the spur on display there:

The spur came to us as part of the Osborn Oldroyd collection of Lincolnia that was purchased by the federal government in 1926 and eventually handed over to the National Park Service in 1933. When the Oldroyd estate was settled, the executors unfortunately separated out most of his correspondence and papers from what they considered Lincoln objects. The papers were either dispersed to various repositories or sadly disposed of. The government ended up with what the executors considered the Lincoln objects.

As a result, we have very little documentation for how Mr. Oldroyd acquired his collection. Of the objects that have some documentation, it is a mix of good and poor provenance. We do not have any documentation for the spur. I am not familiar with the provenance of the spur at the Naval Academy Museum. Hopefully they have better documentation. If not, I suspect this will never be truly proven. There were so many people claiming to have items associated with the assassination that it is wise to be skeptical of all claims without a really reliable chain of custody from a reputable source.

A photo of the Ford's Theatre National Historic Site spur can be found on the Library of Congress website:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/h...010630750/