And then uniquely and strangely, he was carrying a confederate 5. 00 bill. We do not know exactly why. He had visited richmond just weeks before. And it is 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 pair of cufflinks he was wearing that night. Initial cufflinks, something you would have wanted with theater on a nice evening out. And then finally, we have mary lincolns cloak. This also she wore to the theater that night. This is on loan to us from the chicago history museum. It has not been on this way for almost 50 years. So, it is really unique opportunity to see this cloak here. Along with our gray coat, which has not been on display since for several years at the park service at fords theatre, and will not be on display again probably for several years. So it is a real opportunity to see these two items together, i guess abe and mary reunited
Her in ford theater. That is a very unique experience for me as a writer. I think sometimes at fort theater, they, if i can speak for them, they have to almost deny the box in a way. You are doing a play that has nothing to do with lincoln, and yet you cant cover it up. You cant not lighted. It is there. It is always present. So what is wonderful and difficult in a certain way is that it is meant to be present. It is meant to be part of the play. So i think sitting in the audience realizing there was a night on april 14 in 1865 that a president and his wife sat in that box and were watching a play just like we are going to be watching a play. And this terrible thing happened. Of the next on American History tv, as part of our programming marking the 150th anniversary of the assassination of resident lincoln, we visit fords theatre to learn about an online project to collect documents and artifacts detailing ordinary americans responses to the death of the president. Sarah jencks welcom
From stories of people who were Major Players that night, and even sometimes, we will learn about the stories of people who were secondary players on the night of the assassination, like dr. Leal, but we dont get to what regular people experienced. That was what the remembering Lincoln Project was meant to solve. We found partners in historical societies and libraries and institutions across the country that are allowing us that have allowed us to digitize items from their collections and put them together so you can explore them and learn about these responses on your own. David we are going to tell you about some of our favorite things that we have in this collection. Lincoln was assassinated around 10 15 p. M. No one knows the exact moment. Word got out pretty quick of the assassination attempt. Then word got out when lincoln died the next morning. In that day, a lot of the country actually found out pretty quickly. There were telegraph lines in many places. A lot of the major u. S.
You today. We have been working for the last year and half to create remembering lincoln. It allows us to take resources, primary source resources from around the country and around the world and digitize them and put them online so that anyone, anywhere in the world can learn more about how regular people responded to Abraham Lincolns assassination. David mckenzie when lincoln was assassinated, of course this was five days after general robert he lead surrendered to general Ulysses S Grant down at appomattox courthouse, and this is, going back and the moment, the first president ial assassination in the countrys history. It is something that americans had never experienced before. They had also experienced four years of death and warfare. It was a terrible time. And it is really getting back into the moment is what we are trying to do here. Sarah jencks there is real value, we feel, and we have learned this from watching our visitors, and finding out what they can the people experienc
Artifacts detailing ordinary americans responses to the death of the president. Sarah jencks welcome to fords theater. I am the director of education programming here at fort. David mckenzie i am david mckenzie, the Digital Projects manager. Sarah jencks and we are so excited to share a project with you today. We have been working for the last year and half to create remembering lincoln. It allows us to take resources primary source resources from around the country and around the world and digitize them and put them online so that anyone anywhere in the world can learn more about how regular people responded to abraham lincolns assassination. David mckenzie when lincoln was assassinated, of course this was five days after general robert e. Lee surrendered to general Ulysses S Grant down at appomattox courthouse, and this is, going back and the moment, the first president ial assassination in the countrys history. It is something that americans had never experienced before. They had al