Here’s my own addition to the conspirator collage family.
There are two well known compilation images of the conspirators. One is the “Ring of Conspirators” which is featured in the Benn Pitman version of the trial transcript.
The other is a CDV image entitled, “Booth & his Associates”
I took my inspiration from this latter image but made sure to add all of those tried for conspiracy in Lincoln’s assassination, including Dr. Mudd.
“…Would you be kind enough to ask Case to send me without a moment’s delay one dozen of my card photghs. The ones I want are those seated, with cane & black cravat He knows the ones I liked the best…This is very important As there are several parties whom I would like to give one.”
– Letter from John Wilkes Booth to Orlando Tompkins dated February 9th, 1865
Before assassinating President Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth was already a famous man. He was a leading actor of the American stage and his face was well known to a generation of theater goers. He was a handsome man, even being called the “handsomest man in Washington” in the hours leading up to the assassination. Women swooned over his looks and photographs of him were sought after. Booth not only gave photographs of himself as gifts and remembrances, but photographers and gallery owners sold his image to the public. After Booth assassinated Lincoln, demand for his picture increased by a factor of ten. Newspapers were full of advertisements offering the sale of his picture:
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and others in the government likely found this clamoring for the assassin’s picture shameful and so, on May 2nd, the Middle Department of the Army issued a general order essentially banning the sale of Booth’s image in Washington and Maryland:
“The sale of portraits of any rebel officer or soldier, or of J. Wilkes Booth, the murderer of President Lincoln, is forbidden hereafter in this department. All commanding officers and provost-marshals are hereby ordered to take possession of such picture wherever found exposed for sale, and report the names of the parties so offending, who will be liable to arrest and imprisonment if again guilty of a violation of this order.”
Sale of Booth’s photographs outside of this department’s jurisdiction continued and, by May 26th, this order was rescinded and images of Booth were allowed to be sold in Washington again. Soon, carte-de-visites, or small card photographs, of Lincoln’s assassin filled album books nationwide. Some were appropriately defaced like the one at right while others were kept by silent sympathizers.
In 1979, authors Richard and Kellie Gutman published the book, John Wilkes Booth Himself. By working with many private collectors and institutions, the Gutmans had identified and collected all the known images of John Wilkes Booth and published them together in a volume. The book contained 44 images. Four of them are of illustrations or paintings based on a photo and one image, Gutman 1, has been proven not to be of Booth but rather of a friend of his, Richard M. Johnson. This leaves the book with 39 photographs of John Wilkes Booth. The Gutmans’ book is rare and highly sought after today as only 1,000 copies were printed in 1979. Since the release of their book, other photographs have been discovered of John Wilkes Booth. There are also small variations on the known photographs that can be found due to the type of camera used (stereoscopic) and small movements Booth made during a particular sitting of certain pose. The numeration given by the Gutmans in their book is the most common way to organize and differentiate between Booth’s many photographs.
The newest Picture Gallery here on BoothieBarn contains the photographs of John Wilkes Booth organized by Gutman number.
The images come from a variety of sources with the bulk of them stemming from online auctions. While sites like eBay can provide a nice showcase of original Booth images, they are also ripe with laughable images of mustachioed, curly haired gentlemen “proven” to be Booth. Most of these fakes are ignored but, occasionally, they attract far sighted fools and bring their crafty sellers a payday. The images in the John Wilkes Booth Photographs Picture Gallery are established and universally agreed upon images of Booth.
References:
John Wilkes Booth Himself by Richard and Kellie Gutman
“Right or Wrong, God Judge Me” The Writings of John Wilkes Booth edited by John Rhodehamel and Louise Taper
In November I posted a piece about Rosalie A. Booth, the sister of the assassin of President Lincoln. In that post, I included the full text of Rosalie’s letter that she wrote to her brother, Edwin, in 1860. That letter is housed in the New York Public Library and the text of it was published in the “Lincoln Log” in 1979. Here is the text of that letter:
Phil’a
March 12th
1860
Dear Ned
I received yours from Nashville dated the 7 inst. Asia has got a fine little girl and is doing pretty well so far. So you see you have won the bet. Clarke telegraphed you on Saturday. Asia wrote one day last week we both got our boxes and are very much pleased with them and I thank you a thousand times. Mother got a letter from June written on the 6th of Feb’y he got the check that she sent and was going to write to you at the same time. He was in good health but little Mary had a very bad cold. He sends his love to you and Joe. In regards to living in New York or Boston it does not make the slightest difference to me as all places are alike as I will have [to] live where Mother does (unless I get married, and have a house of my own but I don’t think that there is any danger of that yet awhile) Mother thinks that she ought to be where Joe is as he is the one that wants some one to take care of him. She [said] that John has been away from home so long that he can get along very well by himself. Love to Joe and tell him to find time to answer my letters. Sleeper says that he got something for Joe to do at the Arch if he has made up his mind to follow the stage. In regard to Wilkes’ fight at Richmond it was with a man named Pat Redford or Bedman in the box office who had insulted him several times before but he did not say what the insult was. He played Ludovico the other night for Julia Dean Hayne’s benefit and was the only one called before the curtain and had a 6 minute call. He seems very much pleased at it. He has got your letter was to answer it. Mother has just written to you and says she will tell you all about how she wants to live as for me all places are alike. Asia sends her love to you and Joe. I am glad that Joe succeeded so well in Biondello.
God bless you my dear Brother is the pray[er] of your loving sister
Rose A Booth
There is, however, at least one other letter written by Rosalie that still exists today. That letter, written by Rosalie to her niece, Edwina, is housed at the Hampden-Booth Library inside The Players Club in New York. I had discovered a poorly copied version of the letter online, but making a workable transcription from it was extremely difficult. On my own, I managed to transcribe bits and pieces of the letter that hardly added up to a quarter of its contents. After my initial post, I received an email from a fellow Lincoln assassination researcher named Kate Ramirez who resides in New York City. She graciously volunteered to visit The Players and attempt to transcribe the letter in person. I’m eternally grateful to Kate for giving so generously of her time and to the director of the Hampden-Booth Library, Ray Wemmlinger, for allowing her to view the document.
Unfortunately, even in person, Rosalie’s handwriting is very difficult to decipher. Kate was only able to make a partial transcription of the letter. By combining her efforts and the work I had previously done, we’ve managed to transcribe about three-fourths of the letter.
Before reading the letter, however, some background is required. Rose is writing this letter to her niece Edwina on April 3rd, 1881. At the time Edwina, her famous father Edwin, and his second wife Mary McVicker, are living abroad in England. Asia Booth Clarke, who had moved to England with her husband and children years before, had convinced her brother Edwin to make the journey across the Atlantic to perform for London audiences. The engagement only lasted about a year and, during this time, Mary McVicker’s health was failing. The family would return to America in the summer and Mary McVicker would die in November. Still, Edwina, her father, and stepmother, spent their time visiting with “Aunt Asia” and her children. Asia’s oldest child, Asia Dorothy Clarke, was nicknamed Dollie and she was only a couple years older than Edwina. Edwina and Dollie had another cousin, Marion, who was the daughter of their uncle Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. She was an actress and resided in America. Rose mentions news about Marion in her letter, but what she announces never actually came to pass.
What follows is the partial transcription of Rosalie’s 1881 letter to Edwina, along with the poor quality images of each page. If you have any ideas for what missing words might be, or any corrections to the transcription thus far, please feel free to comment below. Perhaps, through teamwork, we can actually get this letter fully transcribed.
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April 3rd 1881 Dear Edwina You must excuse me for not answering your letter sooner I have been sick for over a week but I am quite well now I’m so sorry for Mary I hope by the time this reaches you she will be ____ Grandmother got your letter last night she will answer ____ ____ ____ ____ for ____ ____
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Papa and you let her
You must excuse this ____ as I am weak yet from my spell of ____ I enclose a slip of paper for you to give Papa it may do Mama some good I take an English ____ called The Young ____ ____ ____ it is a very nice B[roth or Brand] Give my love to Aunt Asia and all of her family Tell Dollie that I will write to her soon I wish Many Happy returns of her Birthday I intended to send her something ____
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we could not get in time
____ I will send it soon Grand Mother and Uncle Joe join me in love to you all You ask if Marie is engaged to be married Yes she is engaged to a Mr. Harrison I believe and is to be married in a year if nothing occurs to break it off he is one of the Editors or is connected with Dramatic Mirror We see very little of her I go to see sometimes Aunt Aggie and Uncle June
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are both in B(oston?)
I believe and there ____ ____ good ____ Tell Mama and Papa that we pray for you all and that Mama may soon be restored to health I am proud my dear Niece that you will happily be ____ ____ ____ they ____ ____ you ____ ____ ____ ____ God Bless you all Your loving Aunt Rose A. Booth
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References:
Special thanks to Kate Ramirez for visiting The Players and for transcribing this letter.
Thanks to Jeff in the comments section for his input and help in transcribing.
LincolnConspirators.com 
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