(Lincoln, Abraham)

The pair of German opera glasses carried by President Lincoln at the 14 April 1865 performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre—the evening he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.



Fully functional man's opera glasses of German manufacture (the original case, in the Ford's Theatre National Park Collection, stamped "Gebruder Strausshof Optiker | Berlin"); black-enameled telescoping ocular tubes, gilt metal central spindle with composition focus gear, gilt metal fittings and inner ocular tubes, four ground glass lenses (two 1/2 in. and 2 1 3/8 in. in diameter), lathe-turned threaded eyepieces; one eyepiece a bit askew and with a tiny crack in its lens, the other with a tiny chip. Approximately 4 in. wide, 2 3/4 in. deep when closed (3 3/4 in. deep when fully extended), 1 1/2 in. high.



Displayed on a custom-made, velvet-lined turned mahogany pillar, with explanatory engraved brass plaque, surmounted by a glass dome trimmed in brass.

Captain (later Major) James M. McCamly (died 1 September 1878) — Sarah C. McCamly, his widow — Sarah M. Hartt, her granddaughter — Robert C. Hartt, her son (the foregoing family provenance is supported by an accompanying dossier of documents, including affadavits, copies of James McCamly's military and pension records, a 1968 Smithsonian Institution report, and other documents mentioned above) — acquired, through the offices of Ralph Geoffrey Newman, by Roy P. Crocker (The Roy P. Crocker Historical Document Collection of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, Sotheby's, 28 November 1979, lot 251) — purchased by Malcolm Forbes (The Forbes Collection of American Historical Documents, Christie's, 27 March 2002, lot 106)

Exhibited: Lincoln Exhibition, organized by Meisei University, Mitsuo Kodama, President, at Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi, Tokyo, August 1984

A superbly documented and highly emblematic relic from Lincoln's assassination, with distinguished later provenance.

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln remains one of the most pivotal events in American history. Occuring just as the bloody Civil War that had defined his presidency was coming to an end, the president's death acquired an additional poignancy that ignited a wave of national mourning and a frenzy to bring his killer to justice. When Lincoln died of his wounds the next morning at 7:22, he achieved an apotheosis that transformed him into a martyr not only to American liberty but to human freedom around the world.

"Now he belongs to the ages." Thus spoke Secretary of War Edwin Stanton as Lincoln breathed his last.

Captain James M. McCamly, a veteran of the 70th New York Volunteer Infantry, was on duty as a Washington City Guard the evening of the assassination. He rushed to Ford's Theatre at the first alarm, and was one of a group of guards, soldiers, and physicians who carried the mortally wounded president across 10th Street to the Peterson House. As Lincoln was being transported, the opera glasses—perhaps still in Lincoln's hands, perhaps tangled in his clothing—fell to the street. According to McCamly family tradition, as recorded in an accompanying affidavit, Captain McCamly "picked them up and put them in his pocket. He stayed with the body until it was taken to the White House at which time being relieved of duty he returned to his quarters and went to sleep, when he discovered he had the glasses."

Lincoln's opera glasses passed through three generations of McCamly's family, and in 1968, his great-grandson began researches to corrobrate the long family tradition. He found that among the contents of the presidential box at Ford's theatre that are now housed in the Ford's Theatre National Park Collection is a carrying-case for opera glasses. He submitted the glasses for examination by the Smithsonian in April 1968, and Harold L. Peterson, then Chief Curator of the National Park Service, wrote to him that "These glasses precisely fit the opera glass case in our possession which was also picked up in the Lincoln box that night" (a copy of Peterson's 29 April 1968 letter is included with the lot).

Following the period of mourning in the nation's capital, James McCamly commanded the honor guard that accompanied Lincoln's body to Springfield for burial. In partial recognition for this service, his widow was granted a pension by an act of the joint congress in June 1890.

Both times the opera glasses have been sold at auction they have set record for the sale of a Lincoln artifact: in the Crocker sale, they made $22,000 (more than twice the price fetched in the same sale for Lincoln's iconic beaverskin stovepipe hat); in the Forbes sale they made $424,000.