From the Vault: John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln and the assassination
The Baltimore-Washington area played a central role in the events of April 1865. Lincoln, besides governing for more than four years out of Washington, traveled through Baltimore on his way to his first inauguration (and was the target of a foiled assassination plot at the time, many historians believe). His eventual assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was born in Bel Air. After he shot Lincoln, Booth escaped on a route that took him through Southern Maryland. And when the president’s body made its long journey back to his home in Illinois, Baltimore was the first city to hold a public funeral service.
- Abraham Lincoln, file photo scanned on 02/08/02
- Mathew Brady photograph of Abraham Lincoln, from the Library of Congress.
- House in Charles Co. where John Wilkes Booth got his leg set after shooting Abraham Lincoln.
- WASHINGTON, D.C. — March 4, 1861 — Abraham Lincoln Inauguration. Lincoln takes Oath of Office. Abraham Lincoln taking the Oath of Office for the first time in 1861, as shown from an old print. Photo by unknown/AP file photo
- WASHINGTON, D.C. — March 4, 1861 — Abraham Lincoln Inauguration. “Lincoln’s first Inaugural Procession” from a woodcut in Harpers Weekly for March 16, 1861. Illustration from Harpers Weekly of March 8, 1913. Photo by unknown/file photo
- WASHINGTON, D.C. — March 4, 1861 — Abraham Lincoln Inauguration. Photo by unknown/Wide World Photos file photo
- WASHINGTON, D.C. — March 4, 1865 — Abraham Lincoln’s second Inauguration. Photograph from a painting of the second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. Mr. Lincoln is seen taking the oath of office at his Inaugural. Photo by unknown/file photo
- WASHINGTON, D.C. — March 4, 1861 — Abraham Lincoln Inauguration. Photo by unknown/file photo
- Mr. Lincoln and the Baltimore Barber — An on-the-spot drawing by Thomas Nast of the crowd in Baltimore’s Calvert Station waiting to greet Abraham Lincoln’s regularly scheduled train at about noon Saturday, February 23, 1861. This drawing appeared in the London Illustrated News of March 23, 1861. Nast was the cartoonist who later became famous for his bitterly satirical cartoons of New York City’s Boss Tweed. Photo source: Enoch Pratt Library. File photo.
- Mr. Lincoln and the Baltimore Barber. “Procession in Baltimore” is the title of this drawing from an 1861 issue of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly. It purportedly shows Allan Pinkerton (left), Abraham Lincoln, and Ward H. Lamon walking in Baltimore during their night trip through the city. The artist had a lively imagination; the three men never left their sleeping car. Photo source: Pinkerton National Detective Agency/file photo
- Tudor Hall, seen with owner Howard Fox, was the summer home of the Booth family in the 1800s.
- Tudor Hall
- The Booth family grave at Greenmount cemetery.
- A few of the items discovered around Sept. 1988 from Lincoln’s assassination originally belonging to E. P. Doherty who was responsible for tracking down John WIlkes Booth and his accomplice David Harold. Estimated to be of $75,000 value.
- John Wilkes Booth
- Illustrating Booth’s leap from the box that resulted in his broken leg.
- Unmarked, John Wilkes Booth in Greenmounnt cemetery.
- Lincoln in Washington.
- Lincoln with his son, Thomas.
- Abraham Lincoln– A photograph by Alexander Gardner, taken April 10, 1865, five days before the assassination. From the Meserve collection, Library of Congress.