Museum
The Ford’s Theatre Museum combines a remarkable collection of historic artifacts with a variety of interactive exhibits to tell the story of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. Using environmental recreations, videos and three-dimensional figures, the museum transports visitors to 19th-century Washington, where they can follow Lincoln from his arrival in Washington in 1861.
Exhibits explore Lincoln’s Presidential cabinet, what life was like in the Lincoln White House, various Civil War milestones and generals, Lincoln’s great speeches and the Assassination conspiracy.
The collection of artifacts includes the deringer that John Wilkes Booth used, as well as a replica of the coat that President Lincoln wore the night he was shot.
Click here for information on visiting Ford’s Theatre.
Click here for a brief essay by historian Richard Norton Smith on the deringer used by John Wilkes Booth.
Click here for a brief essay by historian Harold Holzer on the two life masks of Abraham Lincoln.
Click here for a brief chronicle of The Baltimore Plot.
Click here for a brief essay by Catherine Clinton on artifacts from the Lincolns’ time in the White House.
Click here for a brief essay by Jay Winik about President Lincoln’s 1864 presidential campaign.
Click here for a brief essay by Allen C. Guelzo about the performance of Our American Cousin on April 14, 1865.
Click here for a brief essay by James Swanson about John Wilkes Booth’s diary.
Click here for a brief essay by James Swanson about Booth’s compass.
Click here for information about Booth’s broken leg.
Click here for artifacts related to Booth’s co-conspirators.
Click here for artifacts related to Booth's escape.
Museum Floorplan
Ford's Theatre Museum Floorplan