[Lincoln, Abraham]

[Ford's] Theatre ... Friday Evening, April 14th, 1865. Benefit! and Last Night of Miss Laura Keene ... Tom Taylor's Celebrated Eccentric Comedy, ... Our American Cousin ... Patriotic Song and Chorus "Honor to Our Soldiers." Washington, D.C.: H. Polkinhorn & Son, Printers, D Street near 7th, [14 April 1865]



Single-sheet playbill (18 3/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 466 x 147 mm). Worn and torn, with loss, including first word of headline, stained, laid down. Matted, framed, and glazed.

Brenner, The Ford Theatre Lincoln Assassination Playbills  (Philadelphia, 1937)

[Ford's] Theatre ... Friday Evening, April 14th, 1865. Benefit! and Last Night of Miss Laura Keene ... Tom Taylor's Celebrated Eccentric Comedy, ... Our American Cousin ... Patriotic Song and Chorus "Honor to Our Soldiers." Washington, D.C.: H. Polkinhorn & Son, Printers, D Street near 7th, [14 April 1865] Single-sheet playbill (18 3/8 x 5 3/4 in.; 466 x 147 mm). Worn and torn, with loss, including first word of headline, stained, laid down. Matted, framed, and glazed.
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The playbill for the performance attended by President Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth, with intriguing provenance. This is the scarce authentic issue of the Ford's Theatre playbill printed after President Lincoln announced his intention to attend Miss Keene's comedy: with the addition of the words of the sing "Honor to Our Soldiers," which was to be sung during the intermission. Genuine playbills for the 14 April performance printed before the addition of the song lyrics also survive, but those that announce "This Evening the Performance will be Honored by the Presence of President Lincoln" are souvenirs printed after the President's assassination.

Framed on the verso of the playbill is a typed affidavit signed by Elizabeth J. McClintock, notarized by Lillian M. Brown of Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, 21 February 1935, explaining the purported history of this copy: "The Program of which this letter is a part is the authentic one held by President Lincoln when shot by the assassin Booth. My father, First Sergeant Noble McClintock, (whose regiment Company K, 114 Penna. Vol. was in Washington, D.C.) was in the Ford Theater on the fatal night, and the next day was ordered with a detail to prevent anyone entering the Theater. I have heard him tell how Secretary of War Stanton, with a friend, demanded admission, but not having the password, was refused. Upon searching the Theater and entering the President's box, father picked up this program where it had fallen (from the hand of the President) between his chair and the wall of the box. In his hurry to secure the program, father did not notice a leg of the chair resting on the upper left corner, which accounts for its being torn. On the Third of February, 1914, I had an appointment with my father to make an affidavit as to the above facts, when he was suddenly stricken by a stroke, never regaining consciousness. His war record will prove his custody of the Theater at this time. There have been many fakes of this program, and I challenge any person to prove more authentically the existence of this treasured memento of our late Beloved President, Mr. Abraham Lincoln."

Miss McClintock's affidavit seems to be a mannequin of verifiable fact dressed up in family legend. Noble McClintock was a sergeant in Company K of the 114th Pennsylvania; he was discharged on 19 April 1864 due to an injury and transferred to the 24th Veteran Reserve Corps. The 24th Reserve Corps was in Washington during the spring of 1865, and members of it were among the soldiers quickly mustered to clear and guard Ford's Theatre. Noble McClintock died on 7 February 1914.