Musical chairs in the State Box?

[wsanto]

(09-26-2014 06:01 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

Does this NPS diagram seem accurate? If so, it looks like Booth would have been closer to Lincoln, not Rathbone, had he entered through door #8. Bill, it also looks like the angle I previously mentioned would essentially be quite small.

It's hard to see how much room there is at the back of box 8 because your view is obstructed as you peer through the current glass door to box 7. The partitions are resting against the back wall of box 8 but you can't see that from the glass door. The settee seems very close as you peer in. In fact all the furniture seems pretty cramped into the two boxes so it doesn't seem like there is as much room as the diagram implies. It appear much more intimate in person.

There is plenty of room to enter through the door to box 7 and approach the rocker from the left. That is obvious when you look in. It just seems like entering through the doorway to box 8 puts you in the center of that intimate space where coming in through the doorway to box 7 would be more stealth and take you directly to your target opposite all the possible obstacles (Rathbone)

Assuming Booth scoped the scene through the peephole in the door to box 7 he would have seen Rathbone across the way basically facing him and the doorway to box 8 but turned a little looking at the stage. Perhaps the settee was positioned differently that night than it is currently and was facing more toward the stage. It is currently against the far diagonal wall of box 8 with Clara's chair more upstage toward the center of the space.