Note: Please see Day 3 (October 11) of the sale that features rare material relating to the Gettysburg Address.

“I turned down the top of the boot, and saw the name ‘J.Wilkes’ written in it.”

Full-length studio albumen CDV. Massachusetts: T. Meehan, 1865. Publisher’s imprint to lower margin verso. E.M Worth’s American Museum stamp to mount verso, reading: “One of the Boots worn by Wilkes Booth, at the Assassination of President Lincoln, 1865.”

On the night of 14 April 1865, John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865) leapt from the balcony from which he had just committed the first assassination of an American president, shooting Abraham Lincoln in the head. Upon landing on the stage, Booth broke his left fibula, an injury that would not deter his escape, but would require him to make a stop around 4 a.m. on 15 April 1865 at the house of Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd Sr. (1833-1883). The doctor received Booth, slicing open his boot to treat, splint, and provide his patient with the necessary assistance to continue his journey.

On Easter Sunday, a day after treating Booth, Mudd asked his cousin to notify the 13th New York Cavalry in Bryantown of his involvement. Whether it was an act of nagging guilt or the desperation of accidental complicities, Mudd’s delay in informing officials immediately raised suspicions, inevitably tying him to the conspiracy. After initially stating that he had never seen Booth before that night, Mudd mistakenly mentioned that he had actually run into Booth in December 1864. This error was enough for officials to change their handling of the witness; he was now a suspect. Though it was questioned if Mudd knew of Booth’s entire plan, which had been presented to his co-conspirers initially as a kidnapping, he was prosecuted and imprisoned for his involvement in the conspiracy. 

This CDV shows the left boot Mudd cut off Booth the night of his escape. During the conspiracy trial of the doctor, Lieutenant Alexander Lovett testified that “On Friday, the 21st of April, I went to Mudd’s again, for the purpose of arresting him. When he found we were going to search the house, he said something to his wife, and she went upstairs and brought down a boot. Mudd said he had cut it off the man’s leg. I turned down the top of the boot, and saw the name ‘J.Wilkes’ written in it."

[Abraham Lincoln, Politics, Mary Todd Lincoln, 1860 Election, Election of 1860, 1864 Election, Election of 1864,  Lincoln Assassination, John Wilkes Booth] [Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards][Medical History, Medical Photography]