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05-23-2013, 11:35 PM,
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Wesley Harris
Senior Member
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Posts: 145
Threads: 16
Joined: Jul 2012
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RE: A John Wilkes Booth boot question
(05-23-2013, 11:25 PM)John Stanton Wrote: Look back at the picture of Powell's knife, at post #2. That sheath was made to be worn on a belt. Very snug fit, so as not to fall out. That sheath was machine made. Maybe that was Powell's KNIFE, but not his sheath. The sheath accompanying Powell's knife at the Huntington Library appears to be in much better condition than those at Ford's Theatre belonging to Herold and Atzerodt and the one in storage Dave & I believe belonged to Booth. My guess is the Powell sheath is not original but was used after the fact by Robinson or family to hold the knife.
Booth's knife sheath and two holsters were designed to slide onto a belt. He definitely had one as Dave has noted.
The knife Herold had in his boot is the one found in Atzerodt's room. Very large; same kind Powell had.
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05-24-2013, 06:19 AM,
(This post was last modified: 05-24-2013, 06:22 AM by BettyO.)
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BettyO
Hero Member
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Posts: 3,596
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RE: A John Wilkes Booth boot question
Quote:I'm uncertain if any conclusions can be made from the sheath holding Lewis Powell's knife. I was at the Huntington Library in December and examined the knife for almost an hour. There is no provenance for the sheath other than that it came with the knife when the George Foster Robinson descendant donated it to the Huntington in 1961. The knife is still quite sharp, and the handguard is quite loose. The staff handed it to me in a ziplock plastic bag, which I thought was a novel approach to curatorial storage. I'd corresponded several times with different staff before I arrived at the library if I could examine it with a forensic light source to determine if there were any blood stains still present (the bone handle has a rough surface, easily hiding residue), but that brought a big--and consistent--refusal. So much for the advancement of history, let alone science.
A "Zip Lock" bag used for "conservation?" OMG - that's pretty scary, Blaine! But yet they would not let you use forensic items to check for blood stains - amazing!
Quote:The sheath accompanying Powell's knife at the Huntington Library appears to be in much better condition than those at Ford's Theatre belonging to Herold and Atzerodt and the one in storage Dave & I believe belonged to Booth. My guess is the Powell sheath is not original but was used after the fact by Robinson or family to hold the knife.
I have to agree, Wes - that sheath was probably made later by Robinson Descendants to "house" the knife.....
"The Past is a foreign country...they do things differently there" - L. P. Hartley
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A John Wilkes Booth boot question
