On April 12, 2015, (April 10. 2015 online) the Los Angeles Times (
visit link) ran the following story:
"President Lincoln's slaying 150 years ago recalled at Ford's Theatre
By DEBBIE ABRAMS KAPLAN
Don't know the manners of good society, eh?" Asa Trenchard said to Mrs. Mountchessington. "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!"
As actor Harry Hawk delivered those lines, the crowd roared with laughter, including Abraham Lincoln, who was seated with his wife in the presidential box for this performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre.
But Lincoln suddenly slumped forward, then fell backward. The laughter had muffled the gunshot that would kill the 16th president of the United States.
John Wilkes Booth dropped the .44-caliber derringer and jumped down to the stage, breaking his leg. A stagehand had his horse waiting outside the theater for the Confederate sympathizer's escape.
In the presidential box, Dr. Charles Leale, a 23-year-old who had recently graduated from medical school, surveyed the wound and ordered Lincoln moved. They carried him outside, where a man across the street waved them into the Petersen boarding house. Lincoln was taken to a first-floor back bedroom, his 6-foot-4-inch body laid diagonally across a small bed.
He died at 7:22 in the morning of April 15, 1865.
Ford's Theatre and the Petersen boarding house were thus immortalized as America lost what Secretary of State Edwin M. Stanton called "the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen."
Although owner John Ford tried to reopen his theater, public sentiment turned against him. Not long after, it became government offices and then closed, reopening in 1968 after extensive renovations as a national historic site and theater.
Ford's Theatre today looks very much as it did during Lincoln's time, thanks to photographs Matthew Brady took within days of the assassination. You'll see the forsythia yellow doors, red carpeting and intimate box seats with ornate fabric draping.
The plain-brick, three-story Petersen House also looks much the same and is operated as a museum. The parlors and bedroom where Lincoln died have been re-created with 1865-period furnishings, none original to the house.
For this 150th commemoration, the exhibit "Silent Witnesses" in the Ford Theatre's Center for Education and Leadership next door to the Petersen House, brings together artifacts — including Booth's derringer — from that fateful April night. (The exhibit runs through May 25.)
The most recognizable on view is Lincoln's top hat, which usually is at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. His chapeau sports a black mourning band in honor of his son Willie, who had died in 1862.
Lincoln's greatcoat is back behind glass after a recent restoration. The Brooks Brothers garment, customized for his second inauguration, is said to be made of wool so fine it resembled cashmere. The lining is stitched with an eagle and the phrase, "One Country, One Destiny."
The contents of Lincoln's pockets are included: two pairs of spectacles, lens cleaner, a pocket knife, watch fob, wallet with a $5 Confederate note and a handkerchief.
Visitors also will see Mary Todd Lincoln's black velvet cloak and pieces of the dresses she and Clara Harris wore that night, as well as the bloodstained gloves worn by Maj. Henry Rathbone. (Harris and Rathbone, who were engaged, were guests of the Lincolns. The two married in 1867 but Rathbone, who suffered mental illness, killed Clara in 1883. He died in 1911 in an asylum in Germany.)
In the museum beneath Ford's Theatre, visitors can see Booth's diary, which details his run from the law and his surprise that the assassination was met with universal condemnation rather than heroic praise. You can also see one of the spurs he wore that night, and the knife used in his escape, engraved with the words "Liberty" and "America." The boot Booth wore on his broken leg, which had been cut off by Dr. Samuel Mudd before treatment, can be seen too."