The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

Each on original mounts, each approx. 4 x 2 1/2 in. Light wear along edges, toning.

During the twelve days in which John Wilkes Booth remained at large following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln there was plenty of time for all manner of meanings to be ascribed to the president's death, from the symbolism of his having died so soon after the end of the Civil War to more moralistic interpretations which sought, in a roundabout way, to place the blame for the president's death upon his own shoulders, believing that a truly pious man under the protection of God would have spent Good Friday in a church as opposed to a theatre.

Among the most fanciful images sold following Lincoln's death was one entitled The Assassin's Vision, in which Booth is startled by the ghost of Abraham Lincoln during his flight from Washington. Many of these images incorporated easily available photographs of the disgraced actor, who, before Lincoln's death, had been one of the most photographed men in the country. Included in this group is a CDV (Gutman 17), the verso on which is written, "Original photograph gift to J.H. Plunkett, NH laywer by J.W. Booth."