BoothieBarn is now on Twitter!

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Dave Taylor

Yesterday, fellow Lincoln buff, Heath Atkinson, announced via Roger Norton’s Abraham Lincoln Discussion Symposium that he had started a Lincoln assassination Twitter account.  Usually I’m a bit reticent when it comes to social media, which might sound strange seeing as I write a blog.  However, since Heath’s new Twitter account, @ALassassination, is essentially tailor made for my interests, I decided to look into creating my own Twitter account so I could “follow” his tweets.  I found that setting up a Twitter account was very easy to do.  Soon I was not only following Heath’s tweets, but also Spirits of Tudor Hall, Ford’s Theatre NPS, Ford’s Theatre Society, and Lewis Powell’s biographer, Betty Ownsbey.  At first I thought I was just going to follow people but, after replying to one of Heath’s tweets, I branched out and wrote my own.  Strangely enough, it appears that this thing that millions of people like to do is actually quite enjoyable. Though the 140 character limit is a rather difficult limit for a verbose individual like myself, I feel this is a fun way to put up little assassination tidbits between postings.  So, rather than just follow others from the shadows, I’m pleased to announce that BoothieBarn is now on Twitter!

BoothieBarn on Twitter

There are three ways you can follow me and my tweets.

1. Join Twitter and Follow @BoothieBarn

This is the best way to go.  Even if you don’t want to make tweets, having an account allows you to get notifications every time I tweet a tweet.  Setting up an account is quick, easy, and free.  Sign up at Twitter.com

2.  Bookmark my Twitter page

You can bookmark my Twitter profile page on your computer and check it every once and awhile for new tweets.  My profile page is:

https://twitter.com/BoothieBarn

3. Check my Twitter feed on the side of this page

If signing up for an account or bookmarking another site seems like too much work, you can always catch up on my tweets when you’re visiting this site.  I just added a new Twitter widget to the main page.  My most recent tweets should show up on the right underneath the most recent comments here on BoothieBarn.

Twitter Widget

I hope you’ll check out @BoothieBarn on Twitter and be sure to also follow Heath Atkinson’s @ALassassination and @SpiritsTH as well.

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Preparing for a Boothie “Camping Trip”

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Dave Taylor

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John Wilkes Booth and his Conspirators

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Dave Taylor

Here’s my own addition to the conspirator collage family.


John Wilkes Booth and his Conspirators

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.

Ring of Conspirators

The other is a CDV image entitled, “Booth & his Associates”

Booth and 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.

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New Gallery – John Wilkes Booth Photographs

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Dave Taylor

“…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:

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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.”

Gutman 21 KillerSale 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.

Click here to visit the new John Wilkes Booth Photographs Picture Gallery.

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

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Rosalie Booth’s Letters

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Dave Taylor

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.

Rosalie letter 1881 1

Click to enlarge

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 ____  ____

 
Rosalie letter 1881 2

Click to enlarge

 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 ____

 
Rosalie letter 1881 3

Click to enlarge

 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

 
Rosalie letter 1881 4

Click to enlarge

 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

 

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.

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John Surratt in The Days’ Doings

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Dave Taylor

In December of 1870, John H. Surratt gave his first public lecture about his involvement with John Wilkes Booth and the plot to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. His hope was to turn his notoriety into a successful career as a lecturer. He gave speeches in Rockville, MD, New York, Baltimore and was scheduled to speak in Washington, D.C. when public outcry and his arrest put an end to dream vocation. In truth, his lecture did not provide any earth shattering revelations and the full text of his Rockville lecture can be read on Roger Norton’s Lincoln Assassination Research Site here.

Surratt Proposed Lecture

Regardless, John Surratt’s lecture was newsworthy. It was particularly suited for an illustrated newspaper across the ocean called The Days’ Doings. The Days’ Doings was owned by Frank Leslie, the namesake of the American illustrated newspaper, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Frank Leslie was a English immigrant and engraver whose real name was Henry Carter. While his American newspaper set the bar for quality for illustrated newspapers, The Days’ Doings was specifically made to fulfill the darker desires and interests of its readers. Joshua Brown, a historian on Frank Leslie and The Days’ Doings, said it best: “In short, with The Days’ Doings, Leslie could pursue a male readership with a repertoire of sex, scandal, sports, and violence that would have undermined the necessary propriety of his most valued publication.” As an example, I previously posted this cover from an issue of The Days’ Doings, which I think demonstrates the newspapers normal content:

Booths body

Publishing the words of John Surratt, an accomplice of the assassin, clearly fit the newspaper’s modus operandi. However, they found Surratt’s lecture too tame and lacking of drama. “He says very little of interest that was not known before,” the newspaper stated and, therefore, they supplemented the text by including several engravings: “The salient points of his lecture we have given pictorial interpretation”.

The article, which was published in The Days’ Doings on January 14th, 1871, contains a few abstracts from John Surratt’s lecture with far more space given to the lively “pictorial interpretations”:

Surratt Days Doings 1871

Surratt as a Spy

Booth Telling Surratt of his Plan

Surratt Booth Meting of Conspirators

Conspirators Waiting for Lincoln

Surratt Learning of Lincoln's Assassination

Surratt Mary Deserted

Surratt Learning of his Mother's fate

Surratt Booth Lincoln Abduction plan

References:
The Days’ Doings (January 14th, 1871) owned by Dave Taylor
Indiana Historical Society
The Days’ Doings: The Guilded Age in the Profane Pictorial Press by Joshua Brown

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“That ghastly errand”

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Dave Taylor

Some of the misinformation that exists out there regarding John Wilkes Booth’s death is the idea that the Booth family never identified his body.  Conspiracy theorists use this incorrect idea to support their opinion that the man buried in the unmarked grave in the Booth family plot at Green Mount Cemetery is not Lincoln’s assassin.  Like so much of the conspiracy theorists’ “evidence”, however, the truth easily dismisses the myths.  The family did identify the body and they had no doubt in their minds as to who it was.  In fact, during the time prior to Finis Bates’ conspiracy book about John St. Helen and David E. George, setting the record straight about the matter of identification didn’t even focus on John Wilkes.  The following is a letter written by Edwina Booth Grossman, Edwin Booth’s daughter, to the editor of the Century Magazine, R. W. Gilder.  In it, she requests that Gilder put something in print to set the record straight about which family member identified Wilkes’ remains.  I find it humorous that, back then, the “controversy” was not about John Wilkes Booth’s body, but rather which Booth claimed him.

The Arlington
Washington, D.C.

July 10, 1909

Dear Mr. Gilder,

May I ask you to kindly correct a statement which has recently appeared in print viz, that my father went to Washington to identify the body of his brother John Wilkes when it was disinterred from beneath the Arsenal.  I once asked my father if he had seen his brother’s body and he emphatically replied that he had sent his brother Joseph on that ghastly errand.  This may not be of sufficient importance to the public at large, but as it means much to me, I am naturally anxious that a correct version of the incident be published.  My father also told me that he never set foot in Washington since the day he was summoned thither by the authorities and courteously detained but a short time while giving testimony under oath as to his ignorance or knowledge of his brother’s crime.  That having satisfied his inquisitors he was allowed to return at once to his broken hearted mother and to his home in New York.  That is all the information I ever sought from my father on this painful subject.

It may interest you to know that I found among my dear father’s private papers an envelope containing a lock of hair and a note on which were written the following lines:

“John Wilkes Booth’s hair cut by my brother on board the U.S.S. ‘Montauk’ at Washington, D.C., my brother William being in command of that vessel when Booth’s body was brought on board the ‘Montauk’.”
Signed
“Mary R Crowninshield”

I have never heard of the lady in question and wonder if she is still alive! Perhaps you can inform me?

I am grateful that my beloved father is spared the anguish which the approaching Centenary of Abraham Lincoln would most assuredly have awakened in him.  Although the tragedy of those awful days is scarcely within my recollection it has brought sorrow even unto the third generation and in these days of my enforced residence in Washington I am also sitting ‘within the shadow’

Believe me, dear Mr. Gilder

Most sincerely yours

Edwina Booth Grossman

Mr. Gilder fulfilled Edwina’s wishes and, in the April, 1909 edition of Century Magazine, at the end of an article about Edwin Booth and Lincoln, he published this note:

Gilder's note for Edwina concerning Joe identifying Wilkes

Also, back in 2000, this letter, along with the lock of Wilkes’ hair Edwina mentions, were sold at auction by Christie’s for $35,250.

Grossman Crowninshield JWB hair lock

References:
James O. Hall Research Papers
Century Magazine (April, 1909)
Christie’s

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Dent’s Meadow 1-20-2014

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Dave Taylor

Yesterday, I visited Loyola on the Potomac, the Jesuit Retreat House located in Faulkner, MD.  Though I have been to the Retreat’s property several times in the past as part of the Surratt Society’s Booth Escape Route Tours and through my own arrangements, this was the first time that I have ever been inside of the Retreat House itself.   I was graciously given a tour of the facility by the director as we discussed an upcoming “Boothie” project of mine.  More on that will come later.  After the very productive meeting, I walked down the trail that leads to the water’s edge.  This, of course, is Dent’s Meadow, the point at which John Wilkes Booth and David Herold attempted to cross the Potomac River.  For a refresher, here’s a video I shot discussing the location back in August:

Though little has changed at the site since that video, there was less vegetation present due to the cold weather. So, I took the opportunity to make my way into some of the underbrush in order to take some pictures of the unnamed stream that Henry Woodland hid the boat in.  Since it was low tide, there was plenty of beach and the mouth of the stream was quite small.  Here are a few pictures I took yesterday:

Dents Unnamed stream 1

Dents Unnamed stream 2

Dents Back of unnamed stream

I also took this panorama of the stream and then added the woodcut of Booth’s boat that appeared in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated newspaper.  Click it to see it larger (and longer):

Boat in the Stream Panorama

Lastly, back in August I wrote on a piece of driftwood the historical significant of the site. I was pleased to see that my homemade marker was still there:

Dents Writing on the log 1

Dents Writing on the log 2

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