The Lincoln Rocker
8 artifacts in this set
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The staff at The Henry Ford
Rocking Chair Used by Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater the Night of His Assassination, April 14, 1865
Rocking chair
President Abraham Lincoln was sitting in this rocking chair during a production of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., when he was assassinated on April 14, 1865. Henry Ford purchased the chair in 1929 for the Museum, where it remains one of the most revered objects associated with the "man who saved the Union."
Lithograph, "The Assassination of President Lincoln," 1865
Print (Visual work)
New York print makers Currier and Ives were well known for producing inexpensive lithographic prints of landscapes, famous people and scenes of everyday life. This was an inexpensive way for the middle classes to decorate their homes. This shocking scene of the Lincoln assassination was unusual for the firm and served to visually dramatize the event for a grieving nation.
The Chair in Which Abraham Lincoln was Shot, Photographed in 1865
Carte-de-visite (Card photograph)
President Abraham Lincoln happened to be sitting in this rocking chair when he was mortally wounded at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the evening of April 14, 1865. Mathew B. Brady made the photograph for his Brady's National Portrait Gallery. At a time before television and internet news, this carte-de-visite helped people visualize events surrounding President Lincoln's death.
"The Chair that President Lincoln Occupied at the Time of His Assassination," 1865-1866
Stereograph
President Abraham Lincoln happened to be sitting in this rocking chair when he was mortally wounded at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the evening of April 14, 1865. Mathew B. Brady made the photograph for his Brady's National Portrait Gallery. At a time before television and internet news, this stereograph view helped people visualize events surrounding President Lincoln's death.
The Abraham Lincoln Chair Being Uncrated after Shipment to Greenfield Village, January 1930
Photographic print
President Abraham Lincoln was sitting in this rocking chair during a production of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., when he was assassinated on April 14, 1865. Henry Ford purchased the chair in 1929 for the Museum, where it remains one of the most revered objects associated with the "man who saved the Union."
Raymond Massey Viewing the Abraham Lincoln Chair, Then Exhibited in Greenfield Village, November 1943
Photographic print
Actor Raymond Massey portrayed Abraham Lincoln in "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" first as a Broadway play in 1938-39, followed by a 1940 film. The story which traces Lincoln's early life through the 1860 election was written by noted playwright Robert Sherwood, and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1939. In late 1943, Massey toured the Logan County Courthouse where this photograph was taken.
The Chair in Which Abraham Lincoln Was Shot at Ford's Theatre, Photographed in Henry Ford Museum Theater, April 1958
Tintype (Photograph)
Irwin J. Clark made this hand-colored Tintype in April 1958. Clark was the Greenfield Village Tintypist from 1956 to 1968. It shows the Lincoln Chair on the theater stage of Henry Ford Museum. The Tintype was produced in preparation for a 1959 program commemorating the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth in 1809.
Robert Eliason at the Abraham Lincoln Chair Display in Henry Ford Museum, 1980
Photographic print
As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of Henry Ford Museum in 1979, the Lincoln Chair was relocated to the Museum from the Logan County Courthouse. The Chair has since been prominently displayed, most recently as a centerpiece in the "With Liberty and Justice for All" exhibit. Here, Museum Curator Robert Eliason is shown with the chair in the Museum's Interpretive Center in 1980.