Booth at Lincoln's Second Inauguration

[mgambuzza]

I have an observation to share. I was at the newly restored Ford's theater museum and noticed they had a large blow-up photo of the inauguration.
I looked for what is thought to be JWB in the photo and couldn't find him in the top hat!

It appears that the photo was altered by the museum??? Could this be?

[Dave Taylor]

I wrote about this famous picture here: http://boothiebarn.com/2012/05/31/booth-...uguration/

Hopefully this will answer your question.

[RJNorton]

Personally, I think Booth's presence in the photo can be argued either way, but IMO the Kunhardts were incorrect when they placed the other conspirators below Lincoln.

[J. Beckert]

I think the Gutmans made a good point that it's Booth when they stated they believe John Ford is directly below him.

[L Verge]

I don't think that the museum would have any reason for taking Booth out of the picture, but I have often questioned whether the man that we point out is definitely Booth. I base that strictly on the fact that, if the gentleman who reported the strange behavior of supposedly Booth when Lincoln walked through the Rotunda had any concern about that behavior, he certainly should have prevented Booth from going outside for the inauguration ceremonies.

Both inaugurations were times of heavy security for Lincoln. Booth's behavior in the Rotunda - if it were he - would certainly warrant expulsion from the building to me.

[Gene C]

For me, the photo's of the inaguration lack the detail to identlfy Booth. Fun to speculate though.

[Jim Garrett]

One (or more) of the rangers at Ford's wishes that that exhibit/wall was done differently. I spend alot of time down in the museum (will be there this morning) and I have to say, they got it 99% right. There was alot of input when they re-designed the museum from curators both with the NPS and Ford's Theatre Society, and a professional design team from a museum exhibit company. They had to tell two stories and blend them together, Lincoln in Washington, and the Assassination. They also had to do this in a very confined space and design space to manage large crowds.

For those of you who have not visited Ford's Theatre and plan to do so, I suggest to plan ahead. Ford's handles between 600,000 and 900,000 visitors a year. Entry is timed on the hour and half hour. The entrys on the hour allow for the museum, a presentation in the theatre, the Petersen house, and additional museum offerings next to the Petersen house. The entry on the half hour does not include the museum, where most most important artifact are. Call ahead and reserve tickets. There is a small service fee.

I will tell you that Ford's will often sell out a weekend day well in advance during peak tourist season.

Hope to see some of you there.

[jonathan]

Another thing to consider is maybe skipping the ranger talk. That's what I did when I was there a few months ago. I went ahead and fought the crowd in the museum, went into the theater with the others and browsed around chatting and taking some pictures. Then when the crowd was getting settled in for the ranger talk, I went on across the street where I had the Petersen House all to myself and only light competition in the Learning Center. The main reason I did this was because I assumed that most of what the ranger had to say would be things I already knew. That may or may not be true, but it worked out really well. Somebody who knows little or nothing about the assassination obviously should not go this route.

[LincolnMan]

I wrote about this famous picture here: http://boothiebarn.com/2012/05/31/booth-...uguration/

Hopefully this will answer your question.

Dave, really nice work on this!

[Dave Taylor]

Thanks, Bill. I got a huge surge of visitors to my site over the last two days from people seeing "Killing Lincoln" and wanting to learn more about the Booth at the inauguration.

I'm going to shamelessly state that I got the opportunity to help out Erik and his staff on Killing Lincoln when I got a call from him out of the blue regarding my picture of the inauguration with Booth in it. I told him how I created my composite and sent him some of the source photographs I used. I was happy to see that they were able to make their own composite image of Booth at the inauguration:



Funny enough, they placed Booth right next to himself in the picture.

[LincolnMan]

That's really funny-and quite an honor Dave!

[Dave Taylor]

Though I hardly did anything, I was still very excited to contribute in my little way.

[wsanto]

I wrote about this famous picture here: http://boothiebarn.com/2012/05/31/booth-...uguration/

Hopefully this will answer your question.

As usual that's an excellent post to boothiebarn.com. Thanks Dave.

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Isn't there also a report that Booth came very close, and bumped into Lincoln as he was exiting the Capital Building portico on the way to the platform?. Perhaps Booth was speaking of this contact when he mentioned how close he was to Lincoln.

[J. Beckert]

I think "Booth's" position on the landing next to the Capitol steps lends a little credence to this photo being legit. I'd think most common folks simply walked up and took a place where they could find it. His position near the dignitaries leads me to think a pass was necessary and he supposedly got one from Lucy.

[Laurie Verge]

The incident that Bill refers to above was reported shortly after the assassination. Lincoln was sworn into office inside the Capitol and then walked through the Rotunda to deliver his speech outside. John Westfall of the Capitol Police wrestled with a man in the Rotunda who supposedly had lunged at the President. The Commissioner of Public Buildings, Benjamin B. French, later reported that he ordered Westfall to grab the man. This person claimed that he had every right to be there and French was afraid it might be a new legislator that he did not know and ordered Westfall to let the man go. This is in French's papers in the Library of Congress.