See the carriage that transported president and mrs. Lincoln to fords on april 14th 1865. Behind me is the carriage that Abraham Lincoln rode to fords theater the night of his assassination on april 14th. Its part of an exhibit and a project were working with fords theater on in their sigh a lent witness exhibition which opens up this month. April 14th 1865 was an incredible day for both the lincolns and for 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 has breakfast with his family. Robert todd lincoln his eldest son, joins them for breakfast. He was at appomattox. He was part of ulysses s. Grants staff. And he was telling the story to the family about what had just taken place. The city has in celebration. And the lincolns themselves were celebrating and finally seeing the end of this incredible war coming to an end and all of the burdens that that had on the president. He decides that day to celebrate in different kinds of ways. One thing he decides is to go on a carriage ride with his wife, mary lincoln. And its an incredible ride that the two of them take. You know mary asked whether they should invite anyone to join them. Abraham lincoln says, no hed like to go just the two. And they take this ride around the city and they talk about their future. And lincoln turns to her and says, now is the time where we should really put aside our sorrows and think about the future. And he says that he would like to go to you know, to see the holy lands, see the gold mines in the west, and mary talks about how shed 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 you know they really say theyre going to look to the future and put aside the sorrows of the past. And lets go to the theater. And that night, you know, they get ready to go to the theater. And they take they invite a number of people. That they might want to take to the theater. Many people turned them down. Originally they were hoping that the grants would join them. They take a young couple. Major rathbone and his fiance clara harris. They pick them up in the carriage that im standing in front of. And they go to fords theater. And they arrive late to the play. They go up into the president ial box. The play itself had already begun. They stopped the play. And theres 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 hes finally sort of basking in the glory that he was never quite confident that he would finally achieve. And he sits down to enjoy the play. And Everybody 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 enter intoes the president ial box, pulls out a derringer, and shoots the president in the back of the head. The theater sort of erupts in chaos. You know, booth tries to escape. Major rathbone tries to hold him. Booth pulls out a knife and slashes his arm. And then jumps out of the president ial box onto the stage and escapes. The theater erupts in chaos. As one actress said, it was a hell of hells. And you can imagine. The chaos of all these people. The president had just been shot. No one knows what to do. Laura keane one of the plays producers and major actors in the play approaches the audience. She tries to calm the crowd. Its not really possible. Somebody shouts, the president needs water. She runs to her dressing room grabs a pitcher of water, and enter intoes 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 leo. He releases a blood clot in the back of his head and realizes, in a sense, that while this eases the president s breathing he is actually this is a mortal wound. And hes about to die. They take 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. Its one of those times in American History where everything changes. You know the sense of incredible celebration and 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 johnsons. But clearly the course of history at that one moment changed. One of the great treasures that we have lent to fords theater exhibit silence witnesses is Abraham Lincolns top hat. And this is really one of our prized possessions. Its not something that weve ever lent to fords theater before. So its the first time that its been back since 1865, to my knowledge, at fords theater. The hat itself was purchased by Abraham Lincoln from a washington hatmaker. We dont exactly know when he acquired the hat. But we do know that the last time he wore it was to fords theater. Its a very typical tall hat. You might have noticed that it has a very wide band around it. Thats actually a mourning band that lincoln added to the hat to commemorate the death of his son willie, who died in the white house. And i also think that he used that as a symbol of also his linking his mourning to the mourning of so many others. The hat itself comes to the Smithsonian Institution after the conspiracy trials are all over. The War Department took over fords theater after the assassination. And took back a number of objects, including the hat back to their offices as evidence of the crime. The hat itself bounces around from various agencies. It was at the interior department for a while. On display very shortly in the Patent Office display. Then in 1867 with marys permission the hat comes to the Smithsonian Institution. Its 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 that 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 had arrived. And so for the next 20 25 years, the hat and the chair remain in the base. The Smithsonian Institution for no one to see. Eventually in the 1880s a small museum opens up and they asked to borrow the hat. They learn that the hat was here. And ever since then the hat has been one of the most prized possessions always on public display at the institution. The chair itself many years later, the fords theater relatives asked for the chair back. Of which the smithsonian gives them back the chair. They eventually sell it to the ford museum or they sell to it henry ford which now its at the Henry Ford Museum in michigan. You know the carriage itself is a fairly that typical carriage. I mean, this is a carriage that required a driver. You can see the seat up front. So in order to really operate this carriage, you need to have various kind of servants and staff at your disposal. Its not the fanciest of carriages. But surprising to surprising to me president s supplied their own vehicles when they become president. The lincolns had three carriages, this for daytime, another carriage that was closed for, you know, bad weather and theres a third carriage that no one has a good description of. We dont know what that looked like. After the assassination, robert todd lincoln, with mary starts to dispose of some of the lincolns property. The carriage itself is sold to a doctor in upstate new york who uses it for his daily routes and then eventually, its sold to the studebaker brothers building a collection of historic characters. They were carriage builders before they actually build an automobile company, and it becomes part of their collection and one of the 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 fords theater for the 150th anniversary. There is a reality to our story. At the National Museum its the objects that tells the story, and they are real to people. We know so much about Abraham Lincoln. I mean, you can imagine books are written about him all the time, but to be able to see the carriage he rode in the hat he used to wear, and start to understand in the reality of him, he was about, what the country was about, and what happened that night is what we do at the National Museum. Objects by themselves have their own stories. Here its lincolns carriage, but his initials are on the side of the carriage. So now its more real to us this was his carriage. He rode in on that fateful night. Thats extraordinary for us. We are standing here in the center for leadership for silent witnesses, artifacts of the lincoln assassination and we have brought together this jewel box exhibit for the 150th anniversary of the assassination assassination. Weve been working on it three years now, and just wanting to bring, reunite objects that were here 150 years ago that have not been back since then and bring octobers together in a small room is extrord their. Its small, intimate that it brings a human feeling and sense to it, and that is highlighted by lincolns pocket. Looking at these items, close up as you can you see the glasses, the spectacles he wore and the string that lincoln himself tied to the spectacles to hold them together. You see the watch he had. You see the 5 confederate bill we imagine he picked up going to Richard Richmond a week earlier. You see those and you start to understand the type of person he was, to see these octobers close up to see the component 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, its, in a way an eerie but oddly exciting feeling that these objects are all coming back together for the first time in 150 years. Really wonderful, as i said, a once in a lifetime exhibit. One of the things that is extraordinary about this is we try to tell the story about the people that were here that night. You basically have the lincolns. You have major rathbone, clara harris the actress manager our production of the american cousin, one of the people who went up to the box and comforted lincoln while he was in the theater and before he left. We have a swatch from laura kings dress an extraordinary arty ticketfact, again, the Human Element of the people here that evening and what it meant to have all those people come together for that moment in history where lincoln was shot and ultimately died the next day. Charles leale was an army medic medic, in the theater that night to see the play and president at the theet r, and he happened to be in the balcony seating in the dress circle, one of the first to get to lincoln that night, and it really is one of the extraordinary arty facts that we have in the exhibit. Its something that weve thought about for many years wanting to be a centerpiece of this exhibit because its a firsthand account that dr. Laele wrote within a month of the assassination, a month after lincolns death, leale wrote this letter about what it is to get in a sort of medical and clinical terms, writes about how he got to lincoln initially, what his condition was, and talks about how he stayed with lincoln throughout the entire evening in the Peterson House even after lincolns own personal doctors arrived from the white house, leale stayed with him throughout the evening and did not leave lincoln until the next morning when he finally passed away. The exhibits laid out in four acts. We modelled it since the night that the lincolns went to the theater to see a show so we decided to do a narrative based on the play dividing the exhibit into acts. This section really is a play bill from our american cousin something you would have been handed out on the streets. You wouldnt have got this in the theater, but an advertisement for the show that night, and it highlights laura king, the lead actress that night, responsible for the bringing the show to fords theater. She was a key player. We look at the key players in the exhibit, and that night, the president , the first lady their guests to the theater was major henry rathbone, and clara harris, they were engaged to be married, clara, a young friend of marys. Dr. Leale was the first person to reach lincoln in the president ial box and started the care for lincoln that evening and laura king, our actress lead actress, she also made her way to the box after the assassination and cradled the president s head on her lap briefly, brought water to the box for him and then left later to try to get the crowd under control, and then lurking in the background sneaking around the corner, we have the aasasszsasassin, John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln and the guests arrive a little bit late to the theater. Lincoln was finishing up business at the white house, so when they came in, the show was already in progress. The show was stop edped and president and first lady introduced, crowd cheered played hail to the chief, and we have orchestra that night, this violin and drumsticks were used that evening. These have not been on view for several years, part of the National Park service collection, and then our second or section is the actual act of the assassination, and this, the president is shot so he the figure here is the gun, of course used by booth to assassinate the president. He snuck into the box coming up behind the president. Its very small. About a palmsized pistol. This was considered a gentlemans gun, and you can see its got beautiful silver inlay and inscriptions on it. Very pretty carved handle which i think is sort of why it was called a gentlemans pistol. It usually came in a pair. We dont know what happened to the second pistol. You know, we believe that he chose it because it was small and easy to carry and conceal. He knew that he only needed win shot if he did it right. He his goal was to be as close to the president as possible, and now, he did carry a large knife with him as a second weapon in case he needed it, and unfortunately, he did not. He was at pointblank when he fired the gun. The gunfired one round led bullet, and it did not need to be reloaded so you know, some people feel like you know, he may have chosen this also as a dramatic way to shoot the president , you know one shot. I think he wanted to escape but i think if he was caught, he would have been okay 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. He was an actor. He felt he was doing his duty to the south. After the shooting he didnt need to keep the weapon. His key at that point is to escape. He threw the missingpistol in the box, just dropped it. Part of the fact the major aware of what happened now, jumping up to capture him grabs him, and booth slashes with the knife to escape and leap over the box. No one thought about the gun. No one knew about the gun until later, a journalist actually went back into the box and found the gun on the floor. He could have kept it, but handed it over to the Police Department where it was handed over to the government for evidence of the trial for conspirators and John Wilkes Booth. Other items are related to the items we just met. We have majors gloves worn that evening, we have laura kings cuff she wore that evening, and also a fraeggment of the dress as well as fragments of the dress mary lincoln wore here in the black and fragment of clara harriss dress. She was the guest that evening. Major was also attacked by booth, and so he was bleeding profusely, so a lot of blood on the artifacts are his blood versus lincolns blood. The cuff laura cut off her dress and handed to her nephew. It was her husbands nephew, the next day but the fragment from her dress, she never gave away pieces of the dress during her lifetime, and either her daughter or granddaughter gave away five fraeggments we know about. We dont know what happened to the rest of the dress. We dont know where the fragments these came from but collecting things like this during that period of time death and mourning artifacts were very popular. When king went up to the box to bring water that the doctor requested, she asked to hold the president s head in her lap and granted that. When she needed to leave or ready to leave the box, they did not want to put the president s head on to the floor of the theater box, so the theater manager who was there grabbed the flag that was decorating the front of the box, which is right here, and they folded it up and put that under lincolns head. We have bloodstaining here. This flag on loan to us from the Pike County Historical society in pennsylvania. And so that flag was preserved. It went to another actress in the show that night, a woman named jenni who was another actress, and her father was a theater manager who grabbed the flag, and he then kept it later and passed it down through their family. Our time section of the exhibits, or act four to say, is the vigil and it really is about the personal artifacts of abraham and mary lincoln as well as the letter with dr. Charles leale, first doctor there, wrote the account to a friend of his weeks later, recalling everything that happened that night, not just his role, but what happened that evening and at the Peterson House. He was young, only 23 years old, he was just out of medical school for six week, and found himself in the position of caring for the president initially. He found the wound and razed immediately it was fatal and there was no way that the president would recover from this shot. So he wrote to his friend and theres beautiful quotes and beautiful phrases in the letter, that he shared, and that was may, so it was just a couple months later but our collective ariantyifacts here all items of lincoln, the great coat he wore, made for him by brooks brother, worn to the second inaugural and wore again to the theater that evening, and his top hat as well as mourn band for willie. We have the contents of his pockets, so these were things, all of the artifacts were given to eventually his oldest son robert todd lincoln, 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 hankerchief, a wallet, two pairs of glasses this pair here not only repaired to a piece of string showing his humble origins, but also from washington, d. C. , from Franklin Company here in washington, d. C. , these fold up into the tiny case and a glass polisher for the lenses. We have a pocket knife as well as a watch that would have gone on the other end of the pocket watch chain to hold it in place. And then uniquely and strangely he was carrying a confederate 5 bill. We dont know why. He visited richmond, and it just, you know, weeks before, and it perhaps it was a reminder the war was coming to a close, that success was being made, and just toa souvenir. He was a regular person, he want wanted souvenirs, right . These are couplings he was wearing that night just with initials cuff links, something you would have worn to the theater on a nice evening out, and then finally, mary lincolns cloak. This also is what she wore to the theater that night, and in is on loan to us from the chicago history museum. Its not been on display for almost 50 years. This is a unique opportunity to see this cloak here and along with the great coat which has not been on display since for several years here at the park service or fords theater, and it wont be on display for several years. Its a real opportunity to see the two items together, i guess abe and mary reunited in a sad beautiful way. For our visitor to actually see something that is finally here that happened 150 years ago is an extrorpd theiraordinary opportunity to reflect on what america really is. The reason that we exist in history museums is to understand our history. And that is essential for us because it tells us who we are today, and for all of us tells us who we could be by learning of the past, inspired by the past, and being troubled by the past, but understanding who we are and where we came from explains so much about us and most importantly, gives us a point of reflection about how to create a much Better Future for everyone. Watch this and other american artifacts programs any time by visiting cspan. Org history. American history tv in prime time continuings with programs commemorating the 150th anniversary of president loepg lincolns funeral in springfield, illinois, where the train arrived, and learn about the seven state journey from washington, d. C. Well show you a funeral procession and ceremony reenactment at Oakridge Cemetery cemetery, the site of lincolns resting place. That begins thursday at 8 00 eastern on cspan3. This sunday night at 8 00 eastern on first ladies influence and image, well look into the personal lives of three first ladies. Sarah polk had a strong belief in politics helping jameis make political decisions. Margaret taylor was opposed to her husbands nomination for president , and he enjoyed telling people she prayed for the opponent to win. As a teacher, phil more was the first to have a profession and began efforts to establish the First White House library. Sarah, margaret, and abigail sunday night at 8 00 eastern on first ladies examining the public and private lives of those who influenced the presidency from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama on cspan3. Cspans new book, firstly ladies president ial historians on the live of 45 iconic women available as hard cover or e book, through your favorite bookstore or online book seller. Each week american artifacts takes you to museums and Historic Places to learn what artifacts reveal about American History. Now we visit the museum in washington, d. C. To review an exhibit to mark the 150th anniversary of lincolns assassination. The New York Herald special Edition Published in 1865 show how the news unfolded after the first Associated Press report that the president had been shot. Im the curator of collections here at the museum, and were in our new lincoln exit, president lincoln is dead. This exhibit has a really tight focus on seven editions of the New York Herald, published in the 18 hours immediately following lincolns assassination, so it is the minute by minute story of the news as it happened as people were getting it in this country about the assassination of lincoln. One of the ways we helped people understand sort of not just time, but place, is through this great map we have on the floor in the center of the gallery because we are almost here in this billing at the epicenter of thing. I mean, fords theater is certainly the true spot of most