It is part of the exhibits we are working on, which opens this month. April 14, 1865 was an incredible day for both the lincolns and washington. News had reached the city that robert e lee had surrendered to grant. The war was finally coming to a conclusion. That morning, Abraham Lincoln had breakfast with his family. Robert todd lincoln, his eldest son, joined him for breakfast. And he was telling the story to the family about what had just taken place. The city was in celebration. And the lincolns themselves you know, or celebrating and finally seeing the end of this incredible war and all of the burdens that it had on the president. He decides that day to celebrate in different kinds of ways. One thing he decides this to go on a carriage ride with his wife. And it is an incredible ride that the two of them take. Mary asked whether they should invite anyone to join them. Abraham lincoln said, no, he would like to go just the two of them to and they take us right around the city and a talk about their future. Lincoln turns to her and says, now is the time where we should really put aside our sorrow and think about the future. And he says that he would like to go to, you know, see the holy land. And see the gold mines in the west. And mary talks about how she would like to go visit the capitals of europe. And then what should they do . Should they move back to springfield or possibly go to chicago . And they really say they are going to look to the future and put aside the sorrows of the past. And lets go to the theater. And that night, they get ready to go to the theater. And they invite a number of people. Many people turned that down. Originally, there hoping that the grants would join them. They take a young couple. Major rathbone and his fiancee. They pick them up in the carriage that i am standing in front of you and the go to ford theater. And they arrived late to the play. They go up into the president ial box. The play itself has already begun. They stopped the play and there is a rousing sort of applause for the president. And you can just sort of imagine, for lincoln, this was one of the happiest days of his life. And here he is finally basking in the glory that he was never quite competent that he would finally achieve. Confident that he would finally achieve. And he sits down to enjoy the play. Everyone knows the story that follows. The president and his party settle in to watch the play. And unbeknownst to them, John Wilkes Booth is entering into the theater, coming up the back stairs. Entering the president ial box, close out a derringer and shoots the president in the back of the head. The theater sort of erupts in chaos. He tries to escape. Major rathbone tries to hold him. Then he pulled out a knife and lashes his arm and jumps out of the president ial box and escapes. The theater erupts in chaos as one actor said, it was a hell. You can imagine, the chaos of all these people, the president had just been shot, no one knows what to do. One of the plays producer and major actors in the play approaches the audience. She tries to call the crowd. Callm the crowd. It is not really possible. Somebody shouts, the president needs water. She runs to her dressing room, grabs a pitcher of water, and enters into the president ial box. There, she cradles the president as other people try to deal with the situation. Is this a mortal wound or not . There was a doctor in the theater. He releases a blood clot in the back of his head. And realizes in a sense, that while this eases the president s breathing, this is actually a mortal wound. And he is about to die. They pick the president out of the theater, across the street to the peterson house, where early the next morning he dies. And then the nation is in mourning. It is one of those times in American History where everything changes. The sense of incredible celebration, relief throws the nation into a state of mourning. And changes the course of the country. No one really knows how the end of the war would have resolved itself under lincolns leadership, as opposed to johnson. But clearly, the course of history at that one moment changed. One of the great treasures that we have lent to the ford theater exhibit is Abraham Lincolns top hat. And this is really one of our prized possessions. It is not something that we have ever lent to ford theater before. It is the first time it has been back since 1865, to my knowledge at fords theater. The hat itself was purchased by Abraham Lincoln from a washington hat maker. We dont exactly know when he acquired the hat, but we do know that the last time you werent he wore it was to fords theater. It is a very typical tall hat. You might have noticed that it has a very wide band around it. This is actually a mourning band that lincoln added to the hat to commemorate the death of his son, willie. I also think that he used that as a symbol of also his linking his mourning of so many others. The hat itself comes after the conspiracy trials are all over. The War Department took over fords theatre after the assassination, and took back a number of objects, including the hat, back to their offices as evidence of the crime. The head itself bounces around from various agencies, the interior department, on display very shortly in the office display, and then in 1867, with marys permission, the hat comes to the Smithsonian Institution. It is actually our first president ial object to come to the Smithsonian Institution. It is delivered to the secretary of the institution. As soon as he hears the hat has arrived, along with the chair, he says to his staff to put them into boxes, not let anyone know that the hat has arrived. And so for the next 20, 25 years, the hat in the chair remain in the basement of the Smithsonian Institution for no one to see. Eventually in the 1880s, a small museum opens up and the asked to borrow the hat. And he says, the hat has been one of the most prized possessions always on public display at the institution. The chair itself, many years later, the ford theater relatives ask for the chair back, of which the smithsonian gives them back the chair. The eventually sell it to the ford museum for they sell it to henry ford, and it is not at the Henry Ford Museum in michigan. The carriage itself is not a typical carriage. The carriage required a driver you can see the feet of friend. You can see that thethe seat up front. So in order to really operate his carriage, you need to have various kinds of servants and staff at your disposal. It is not the fanciest of carriages, but surprising to me, president s supplied their own vehicle when they became president. The lincolns actually had three carriages. They would have this for daytime, another carriage that was closed for bad weather, and a third carriage that no one really has a good description of your so we dont really know what that carriage looked like. After the assassination, robert todd lincoln, with mary, starts to dispose of some of the lincoln property. The carriage itself is sold to a doctor in upstate new york, who uses it for his daily rounds. And then eventually, it is sold to the studebaker brothers, who are building a collection of historic carriages. They are carriage builders before they actually build an automobile company. And it becomes part of their collection and one of their treasured objects. When the Studebaker Company goes out of business, their collection of carriages and automobiles is transferred to the Studebaker Museum in south bend, indiana, where it now resides and who very generously lent this carriage to us and ford theater for the 150th anniversary. There is a reality to our stories. And at the museum, it is the artifacts that can tell the stories. They become real to people. We know so much about Abraham Lincoln. You can imagine, how many books are written about him all the time. But to be actually able to see the carriage he rode in, the hat he used to wear, and start to understand and the reality of what actually he was about, the country was about, and what happened that night is what we do at the national museum. Objects by themselves have their own stories, so here we notice know that it is Abraham Lincolns carriage, but his initials are on the side of the carriage. So, all of a sudden, it becomes more and more real to us that it actually was his carriage. He rode in it on that fateful night. It is pretty extraordinary for us. We are standing here in the center for education and leadership in the special exhibit gallery, artifacts of lincolns assassination. And we have brought together this jewelbox exhibit for the 150th anniversary of the lincoln assassination. It is an exhibit we have been working on now for about three years now. We wanted to reunite objects that were here 150 years ago that have not been back to 10th street since then. And actually to bring these objects together in the small, intimate room is really extraordinary. It is so intimate, i think it really brings a human feeling and the human sense to it. And that is sort of highlighted by the contents of lincolns pocket. When you look at those objects you see the glasses that lincoln war. War. Wore. And you see the string that lincoln himself tied to the spectacle to hold them together. You see the watch that lincoln had. You see the five dollar confederate bill that we imagine that he probably picked up when he went to richmond a week earlier, after the fall of richmond. So you get to see those artifacts and i think you start to understand the type of person that lincoln was. And i think to be able to see these objects close up, to see the sort of real, human components of them, i think gives you a sense of who these people were. And i think to have these objects in a single room sort of reunited, it is, in a way you erie, but oddly exciting and yet eerie feeling that these objects are all coming back together for the first time in 150 years. It is really wonderful, a onceinalifetime exhibit. One of the things that is extraordinary about this is that we try to tell the stories of the people that were here that night. You have the lincolns, the rathbones, laura keene, the actress who was the sort of actress and manager. It was her production. And she was one of the people who went up to the box and comforted lincoln while he was still in the theater before he left. We have a swatch from her dress. It is just an extraordinary artifact. Once again, the very sort of Human Element of the people who were here that evening and what it meant to have all those people come together for that moment in history where lincoln was shot, and then make and then lincoln ultimately died the next day. Charles was a 23yearold army medic. He was a surgeon in the army and he was at the theater that night to see the play and to see the president at the theater. And he happened to be in the balcony, seated. He was one of the first people to get to lincoln that night. And it really is one of the extraordinary artifacts that we have in this exhibit. Something that we have extra thought about for many years wanting it to be a centerpiece of this exhibit because it is a firsthand account the doctor wrote within a month of the assassination. One month after lincolns death. He wrote this letter about what it was to get, and very sort of medical in clinical terms, he writes about how he got to lincoln initially and how he stayed with lincoln throughout the entire evening in the peterson house, even after lincolns own personal doctors arrived from the white house, he stayed with him throughout the entire evening. And he did not leave lincoln until the next morning when lincoln i only passed away. Tracey avant the exhibit is laid out in four acts. We modeled the, since it was the night the lincolns went to the theater, we decided to do a narrative based on the play. So this section, this is a playbill from our american cousin. This is something that you would have been headed out on the handed out on the streets. It really was an advertisement for the show that night. And it highlights laura keene, the lead actress that night. She was also responsible for bringing the show to fords theatre. So she was one of our key players. We look at our key players in our exhibit, and that night, we had the president and the first lady. Their guests were major Henry Rathbone and his fiancee engaged to be married. A young couple. Claire was a personal friend of marys. And dr. Charles, he was the first doctor to reach Abraham Lincoln in the president ial box. And started to care for lincoln that evening. Then laura keene, are actress, the actress she also made her , way to the box after the assassination and cradled the president s head on her lap. Brought water to the box for him. And then left later trying to get the crowd under control. Lurking in the background, sneaking around the corner, we have our assassin. John wilkes booth. Our second section of the exhibition really looks at the arrival to the theater. The lincolns and their guests arrived a little bit late to the theater. Lincoln was finishing up as this at the white house. When they came in, the show is already in progress. The show was stopped. The crowd cheered. They played hail to the chief. We have a couple instruments that were here that night. These have not been on view for several years. They are part of the National Park service collection. And then our third section is the actual act of the assassination. The president is shot. They keep your here is the derringer gun. Of course, he is shot by John Wilkes Booth. He was able to sneak into the box and comes up behind the president. It is very small. Often, considered a gentlemans gun. It has beautiful silver inlay and inscriptions on it. Very pretty, carved handle which is why i think it was called a gentlemans pistol. It also usually came in a pair. We dont know what happened to the second pistol. But we believe he chose it because it was small and easy to carry, e. G. To conceal. Easy to conceal. He knew that he only needed one shot if he did it right. His goal was to be as close to the president as possible. He did carry a large knife with him as the second weapon in case he needed it. Unfortunately, he did not need it. He was pointblank when he fired the gun. The gun fired one lead bullet. And it didnt need to be reloaded. Some people feel like he may have chosen this also as with a dramatic way to shoot the president. You know, one shot. I think he wanted to escape, but i think if he had been caught, he would have been ok with that as well. He felt deeply that he was doing the right thing by bringing down a tyrant. He often referred to himself as brutus to julius caesar, in a very theatrical terms. Since he was an actor. He felt he was doing his duty to the south. After he shoot the president , he doesnt need to keep his weapon. His key objective at that point is to get out and to escape. He just through the pistol down into the box. He just dropped it. Part of that probably had to do with the fact that the major major Henry Rathbone aware of , what is happening now, jumps up to try and capture him. He grabs hold of him, so booth has to slash with his neck to escape the box. No one thought about the guy. Gone. No one knew about the gun until later. A journalist actually went back into the box and found the gun on the floor. And could have kept it as a souvenir, but did the right thing and handed it over to the metropolitan Police Department where it was then eventually handed over to the government as evidence for the trial. As a conspirator. Other artifacts in this section are related to all of our players we just met. We have Henry Rathbones glove that he wore to the theater that evening. We had laura keenes cuffs she was wearing, as well as a fragment of her dress, and a fragment of the dress that mary lincoln wore. Claire and the major were, again, guests of the lincoln that evening. Major rathbone was also attacked by John Wilkes Booth. He was bleeding profusely. A lot of blood that are on the artifacts is his blood versus lincolns blood. Laura keene actually cut off her dress and handed it to her nephew. By the fragment from her dress she never gave away pieces during her lifetime. Either her daughter or granddaughter gave away around five fragments we know about. We dont know what happened to the rest of the dress. And we dont know whether fragments for these pieces came from, but collecting things like this during that. Period of time was very popular. When laura keene went up to the box to bring water that the doctor requested, she held the president s had in her lap. Head in her lap. The theater manager who was there grabbed the flag that was decorating the front of the box, which is right here, and they folded that up and put it under lincolns head. We do have some blood staining here. This flag is on loan from is from the Pike County Historical society in pennsylvania. So that flank was preserved. It actually went to another actress that was in the show that night. She was another actress and her father was the theater manager who grabbed the flag. He then kept it later and passed it down to their family. Our final section of the exhibit, or act four, is the vigil. And it is really about the personal artifacts of the lincolns. Along with the letter from the first dr. There, he wrote an account to a friend of his several weeks later recounting everything that happened that night. Not only his role, but what happened at the peterson has. He was very young. Only 23 years old. He was just out of medical school for six weeks and he found himself in the position of caring for the president initially. He found the lewd and realized immediately that it was fatal. And that there was no way the president would recover from the shot. So he wrote to his friend, and there are some beautiful quotes and some beautiful phrases in the letter. That was just a couple of months later. But our collection of artifacts here, these are all personal effects of Abraham Lincoln. The gray coat that he wore, was worn to his second inaugural. He wore it again to the theater that evening. And his top hat. We also have the contents of his pockets. All of these artifacts were given to come eventually, his eldest son and eventually passed down and given to the library of congress by the lincoln family. Just a collection of really mostly ordinary objects that now are extraordinary. A handkerchief, a wallet, two pairs of glasses, including this pair here not only repaired with a piece of string that shows his humble origins, but also from washington dc from Franklin Company opticians. Washington dc. These folding spectacles that fold up into this little tiny metal case. A glass polisher for the lenses. We have a pocket knife, and then a little watch fob that would have gone on the other end of a pocket watch chain to hold it in place. And uniquely and strangely, he was carrying a confederate five dollar bill. We dont know exactly why. He had visited richmond and, you know, weeks before. It could have been perhaps a reminder that the war was coming to a close. That success was being made. And just a souvenir. He was a regular person. He wanted souvenirs, right . Finally, we have a couple pairs of cufflinks that he was wearing that night. Initial cufflinks, something that you would have warned to the theater worn to the theater on a nice evening out. And finally, we have mary lincolns cloak. She also wore this to the theater that night. This is on loan to us from the chicago history museum. It actually has not been on display for almost 50 years. So it is a really unique opportunity to see this cloak here. Along with our gray coat, which hasnt been on display for several years here at fort fords theater. And will not be on display again probably for several years here it it is a real opportunity, especially to see these two items together. Sort of abe and mary reunited. In this sort of sad but beautiful way. John gray for our visitors to see something here that have that happened 150 years ago is really an extraordinary opportunity. It allows us to reflect on what america is. The reason that history museums exist is to understand our history. And that is essential for us because it tells us who we are today. And for all of us, it tells us who we could be by learning of the past, being inspired by the past, and being troubled by the past. But understanding who we are and where we came from. It explains so much about us. In the most important thing it gives us a moment of reflection about how to create a much Better Future for everyone. You can watch this and other american artifacts programs at any time by visiting our website at cspan. Org history. You are watching American History tv. 48 hours of programming on American History every weekend on the spent three. Follow us on twitter at cspan history. For information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. Each week, American History tv real america rings us archival films that tell the story of the 20th century. 45 years ago on april 11, 1970 apollo 13 black top in what was blasted off in what was to be the Third Mission to land men on the moon. A 1970s documentary about the crisis that nearly left three astronauts stranded in space. April 20 april 13, 1970. The move could only be described as relaxed. Apollo 13. The third scheduled to land on the moon. Get back to a pleasant evening of odyssey. Good night. When you get a chance, we would like to stir up your prayer text. In addition, a look at the if you need it. Ok. Ok. Standby. Ok, a problem here. Say again. We have a problem. Mean be interval. Standby 13. A large Bank Associated with the warning. We are tightening up the tunnel again. Up next on American History tv, love slaves who use the law as a pathway to freedom in the precivil war era. She describes how slaves contributed to building frontier communities and discusses several legal cases that illustrate the struggles of both enslaved and freed blacks in the antebellum west. This event from the National Archives is about 45 minutes. Dr. Vandervelde i should say good morning. It is still morning, right . A few minutes until noon. I want to thank the National Archives and doug watson for doug swanson for this opportunity to speak. It is a pleasure for me since it is black History Month and because the stories im about to tell you about our heroes of black history in my opinion. In the history of the United States supreme court, there is one and only one case where a slave challenged his master and thats the notorious dred scott case. Dred scott vs. Sanford. Now, the slave would lose. Does not seem surprising. That a slave with sue at all does. After all, what could slave do anyway . They had no agency. They were born, died, had children, and worked for other peoples gain. But far more often, they were persons who were acted upon