Two Ford’s Theatre tickets for night of Lincoln murder to be auctioned

The two anonymous ticket holders had seats directly across the theater from Lincoln’s box and probably were present at his 1865 assassination

By Michael E. Ruane
September 22, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT



Two tickets for second-level front-row seats 41 and 42 in section D of the Dress Circle at Ford's Theatre on the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The tickets are going up for auction Saturday at RR Auction in Boston. (Nikki Brickett/RR Auction)

It was the last night of actress Laura Keene’s 11-show stand at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, this time in the comedy “Our American Cousin.” It was also Good Friday, April 14, 1865. And word had come that President Abraham Lincoln would be there. ... Among the crowd were two people who had tickets for prime front-row seats on the second-level — Nos. 41 and 42 D in the Dress Circle. The tickets were green. They were stamped with the date, and the corners had been clipped off, probably by the doorkeeper.

The patrons probably walked down carpeted steps and sat in wooden chairs with cane seats. To the right they could see the private box where at about 8:30 p.m. Lincoln, his wife, Mary, and two friends entered. The play stopped. Everyone stood up. The band played “Hail to the Chief.”



A diagram of the seating in Ford's Theatre that shows the sightline from the box where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated to where two anonymous attendees sat the night of April 14, 1865. (National Park Service/RR Auction)

Those tickets, whose owners are believed to have been present for the assassination of Lincoln moments later, are going up for auction Saturday at a Boston auction house that says it is certain they are authentic.

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After firing a single bullet from a small pistol into the back of Lincoln’s head, Booth, with a knife, slashed the arm of Army Maj. Henry Rathbone, who was sitting with the Lincolns, and jumped down onto the stage.

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By Michael Ruane
Michael E. Ruane is a general assignment reporter who also covers Washington institutions and historical topics. He has been a general assignment reporter at the Philadelphia Bulletin, an urban affairs and state feature writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and a Pentagon correspondent at Knight Ridder newspapers. Twitter https://twitter.com/michaelruane

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A Tragedy's Second Act




This illustration of the assasination of President Abraham Lincoln, circa 1865, includes then-Army Maj. Henry Rathbone (incorrectly portrayed wearing his uniform) and his then-fiancee, Clara Harris. (Library of Congress)



In the years after the assasination, Henry Rathbone suffered from a number of mysterious medical problems. (From Louise Randolph Hartley / Courtesy Michael W. Kauffman)

By Michael E. Ruane
Sunday, April 5, 2009

On Aug. 7, 1891, the royal Prussian physician in the town of Hildesheim, Germany, went to a mental asylum in a former Benedictine monastery to examine a wealthy American who had been an inmate there for the past eight years. ... The patient's name was Henry R. Rathbone. He was a former U.S. Army officer who had once moved in the elite circles of Washington society and now had exclusive quarters in the 800-year-old complex, where he had been confined by the German courts.

The physician, one A. Rosenbach, found Mr. Rathbone thin and graying. He was 53, stood 5-foot-11 and weighed 140 pounds. The doctor took his pulse -- 68 beats per minute -- and temperature -- 99.6. Both about normal. ... The doctor noted that the patient was polite, carefully dressed, and "earnest." He appeared healthy, although the pupil in his right eye was larger than the left. The patient refused to discuss his mental condition, but the asylum records spelled it out.

Henry suffered from hallucinations. He believed he was being persecuted and tortured. He thought there was an apparatus in the wall pouring "injurious vapors" into his head, causing headaches. He believed he could hear people gliding suspiciously in the corridor outside his suite.

The doctor noted two more things: Mr. Rathbone declined to discuss his late wife, Clara, whom he had murdered in 1883 in the German apartment in which they were living during a European tour. And he would not talk about the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

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Michael E. Ruane is a reporter on The Post's Metro staff. He can be reached at ruanem@washpost.com.