The Lincoln Assassination

those silly booths and their death threats ~

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:35:34 GMT

in case you haven't seen it, this might be of interest: Junius hates Jackson.

History Detectives investigates a letter which indicates that thirty years before John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, Booth’s father threatened to kill another sitting president, Andrew Jackson.

The letter to Jackson reads, “You damn’d old scoundrel… …I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping.” It’s signed “Junius Brutus Booth.” The writer insists Jackson pardon two men who were sentenced to death. Why did the fate of these two men enrage such fury?

Was the Booth letter a hoax? Or does assassination run in the Booth blood?

you can download the transcription at the PBS site.

Edwin Booth — What Makes Us Truly Important?

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:03:19 GMT

I found this article today titled "Edwin Booth — What Makes Us Truly Important?" It's a discussion on Edwin Booth and http://home.roadrunner.com/~bcmnc/Bennett/ActorsAndDrama/Edwin_Booth_intro.html

Mourning the last tragedian

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:49:22 GMT

Today Edwin Thomas Booth died today, June 7, 1893 at 1:17am at The Players. He is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass.

Interestingly, this date was also when he and Mary McVicker (another actress, his first wife was also an actress) were married in 1869. The second wife was mentally unstable and made Edwin's life a living hell. She died on Edwin's 48th birthday, Nov. 13, 1881.

Just finished reading the following books:

"Booth's Daughter" by Raymond Wemmlinger: "Edwina Booth, niece of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth and fianc to the son of architect Calvert Vaux, must leave America with her father when President Garfield is assassinated, forcing her to choose between her father and the man she loves."

"The letters and notebooks of Mary Devlin Booth" by Mary Devlin Booth, edited by L. Terry Oggel: This is the first complete edition of the letters and notebooks of actress Mary Devlin, Edwin Booth's first wife, and is the first reference of its kind in nineteenth-century American theatre scholarship. These documents provide a fascinating perspective on Booth, his life, and the development of his career, and include new materials recently uncovered through the editor's research. The volume is also a valuable guide to biograhical information about Booth's father and brother (John Wilkes Booth), and to studies of Mary Devlin Booth and her influence on her husband. In addition, it identifies sources that reflect certain mid-nineteenth-century attitudes and provides a clearer picture of the conventional role wives had in their husband's careers during that period.

If you are looking for used books at a good price, check out www.abebooks.com.

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:55:05 GMT

Yeah, that's right. LINCOLN AND BOOTH: THE MUSICAL is not just a thing of my dreams, it is real! And Terry Alford reviewed it!

http://www.newmusicals.com/Lincoln/lincolnpages/review_rogstad.html

"Lincoln and Booth" retells the assassination story in an original two-act musical. History's whole gang is assembled for this event. There's Lincoln, Booth, Mrs. Surratt, Dr. Mudd, Atzerodt, Spangler, Nellie Starr, Stanton, Harry Clay Ford, Lt. Doherty, even Peanuts John. Fearing the worst, most historians grimace when the curtain parts on movies or stage productions about these characters. But there's nothing too amiss here. Richard Chiarappa, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics, has been fair to the facts. He wisely sought historical assistance from James 0. Hall, Laurie Verge, and Joan Chaconas, and viewers may rest assured the historical elements of the play are satisfactory.
...

"Good-bye," a trio sung by Booth, Nellie Star, and Lucy (Hale), is a haunting favorite among the new music. It had this reviewer hitting the rewind button several times for reprises.

If any of you have heard of this or know where I can get a copy, please let me know!

(happy birthday, by the way)

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Mon, 11 May 2009 02:16:26 GMT

I was on Amazon earlier today and followed a link to this book:

I was surprised, when I thought about it, that I had never heard of anybody trying the Asia angle before. I mean, she is a pretty lady with a mean husband in the nineteenth century, isn't that every historical novelist's perfect protagonist? And she was even actually a writer!

The Amazon reviews didn't look too bad, so I was actually thinking of maybe ILLing this book, but then I found a sample excerpt online. Sadly, Singer's book is full of really bad, really obvious tropes. Asia's husband, John Sleeper Clarke, seems to have been merely caricatured as The Bad Husband. Asia is self-conscious about her looks (did the author ever see her photos?? and personally, I would have put her down as the vain type, myself), and she wishes she were a man. Asia has a bad-ass but beautiful black sidekick woman who hides guns on herself and is completely loving and loyal. The bad guys (read, gov't soldiers), in contrast to Asia, spend pretty much all their talking time using racist language against Asia's beautiful black sidekick, so that we will dislike them automatically. (Of course this is all despite the fact that the real Asia used racially offensive language, in her real books, pretty much whenever she felt like.) The author quotes Shakespeare almost every page. Here is a particularly bad excerpt:

When John Wilkes Booth was small and in my stormy keep, I fused us, so alike in face and form, into one muddle of a being. He was beautiful always. I was hat-rack thin with hair like a Hottentot's and a longing to be him as deep and wide as any river I ever did see. "You'll teach him the verses, Asia, and make him the greatest Booth of them all," my father said. "Poor Hamlet weeps and sighs in your head, that I know," he added, forbidding me to ever set foot on a stage.

So I guess this is one that I won't be seeking out, at least not right away. I'm kind of disappointed, because--all joking aside--I think a book that was really about Asia would be a wonderful read. I'd love to see somebody's fictional take on Asia's childhood tantrums, or her ovbiously complicated relationship with Sleeper--but I don't think what I'm looking for is in this book.

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:58:13 GMT

Today is the anniversary of John Wilkes Booth's death, so it's kind of fitting that a particular book I ordered from the library came in today. It is called Famous Assassinations of History: From Philip of Macedon, 336 B.C., to Alexander of Servia, A.D. 1903, by Francis Johnson. Johnson wrote the book in the same year as the last entry (1903), and it is completely delightful! Moreover, I thought Johnson's description of Philip's assassination sounded oddly familiar...

It was the supreme moment of his pride and happiness: but it was also his last. The noblemen and courtiers had already disappeared in the building. The body-guard, obediant to the King's orders, remained behind. Just at the moment when the King stepped forward, alone, under the gateway of the theatre, a man sprang from a side corridor, thrust a sharp sword into his side, and hurried off as the royal victim reeled and fell. In the tremendous confusion which arose, the assassin came very near to making his escape. He ran toward a swift horse which was kept in readiness for him by friends who evidently knew of the murder and were in the plot; and, dazed as the people were who witnessed the assassination, he would probably have escaped, had not his sandal caught in a vine-stock and caused him to fall, which gave some of his pursuers time to lay their hands on him before he could get up. In their rage, they killed him with their spears and tore him to pieces.

The surroundings and execution of the plot bear a strong resemblance to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In both cases there was an individual murderer, the scene was a theatre, the act was done with incredible audacity in the presence of a large concourse of people, and the murderer was crippled by a misstep after the fatal blow.

Of course I'm not actually impressed with the shocking similarities--the two murders only seem similar because Johnson leaves a lot of significant information out. Pausanias and John Wilkes Booth don't have anything in common, so far as I know, and they certainly had very different murder motives! But I'm sure you all have encountered some variant or other of that obnoxious Lincoln/Kennedy coincidence list.

I think it's charming that this kind of "let's find the coincidences! how significant!" game was being played well before Kennedy had even been born, and with even more obviously irrelevant parallels!

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:27:03 GMT

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
A HORATIAN ODE.

Not as when some great Captain falls
In battle, where his country calls,
Beyond the struggling lines
That push his dread designs

To doom, by some stray ball struck dead :
Or, in the last charge, at the head
Of his determined men,
Who must be victors then.

Nor as when sink the civic great,
The safer pillars of the State,
Whose calm, mature, wise words
Suppress the need of swords.

With no such tears as e'er were shed
Above the noblest of our dead
Do we to-day deplore
The Man that is no more.

Our sorrow hath a wider scope,
Too strange for fear, too vast for hope,
A wonder, blind and dumb,
That waits--what is to come!

No more astounded had we been
If Madness, that dark night, unseen,
Had in our chambers crept,
And murdered while we slept!

We woke to find a mourning earth,
Our Lares shivered on the hearth,
The roof-tree fallen, all
That could affright, appall!

Such thunderbolts, in other lands,
Have smitten the rod from royal hands,
But spared, with us, till now,
Each laurelled Caesar's brow.

No Caesar he whom we lament,
A Man without a precedent,
Sent, it would seem, to do
His work, and perish, too.

Not by the weary cares of State,
The endless tasks, which will not wait,
Which, often done in vain,
Must yet be done again:

Not in the dark, wild tide of war,
Which rose so high, and rolled so far,
Sweeping from sea to sea
In awful anarchy:

Four fateful years of mortal strife,
Which slowly drained the nation's life,
(Yet for each drop that ran
There sprang an armed man!)

Not then; but when, by measures meet,
By victory, and by defeat,
By courage, patience, skill,
The people's fixed "We will!"

Had pierced, had crushed Rebellion dead,
Without a hand, without a head,
At last, when all was well,
He fell, O how he fell!

The time, the place, the stealing shape,
The coward shot, the swift escape,
The wife, the widow's scream--
It is a hideous Dream!

A dream? What means this pageant, then?
These multitudes of solemn men,
Who speak not when they meet,
But throng the silent street?

The flags half-mast that late so high
Flaunted at each new victory?
(The stars no brightness shed,
But bloody looks the red!)

The black festoons that stretch for miles,
And turn the streets to funeral aisles?
(No house too poor to show
The nation's badge of woe.)

The cannon's sudden, sullen boom
The bells that toll of death and doom,
The rolling of the drums,
The dreadful car that comes?

Cursed be the hand that fired the shot,
The frenzied brain that hatched the plot,
Thy country's Father slain
Be thee, thou worse than Cain!

Tyrants have fallen by such as thou,
And good hath followed--may it now!
(God lets bad instruments
Produce the best events.)

But he, the man we mourn to-day,
No tyrant was : so mild a sway
In one such weight who bore
Was never known before.

Cool should he be, of balanced powers,
The ruler of a race like ours,
Impatient, headstrong, wild,
The Man to guide the Child.

And this he was, who most unfit
(So hard the sense of God to hit,)
Did seem to fill his place.
With such a homely face,

Such rustic manners, speech uncouth,
(That somehow blundered out the truth,)
Untried, untrained to bear
The more than kingly care.

Ay! And his genius put to scorn
The proudest in the purple born,
Whose wisdom never grew
To what, untaught, he knew,

The People, of whom he was one.
No gentleman, like Washington,
(Whose bones, methinks, make room,
To have him in their tomb!)

A laboring man, with horny hands,
Who swung the axe,
who tilled his lands,
Who shrank from nothing new,
But did as poor men do.

One of the People! Born to be
Their curious epitome ;
To share yet rise above :
Their shifting hate and love.

Common his mind, (it seemed so then,)
His thoughts the thoughts of other men :
Plain were his words, and poor,
But now they will endure!

No hasty fool, of stubborn will,
But prudent, cautious, pliant still ;
Who since his work was good
Would do it as he could.

Doubting, was not ashamed to doubt,
And, lacking prescience, went without :
Often appeared to halt,
And was, of course, at fault ;

Heard all opinions, nothing loath,
And, loving both sides, angered both :
Was--not like Justice, blind,
But, watchful, clement, kind.

No hero this of Roman mould,
Nor like our stately sires of old :
Perhaps he was not as great,
But he preserved the State !

O honest face, which all men knew!
O tender heart, but known to few!
O wonder of the age,
Cut off by tragic rage!

Peace! Let the long procession come,
For hark, the mournful, muffled drum,
The trumpet's wail afar,
And see, the awful car!

Peace! Let the sad procession go,
While cannon booms and bells toll slow.
And go, thou sacred car,
Bearing our woe afar!

Go, darkly borne, from State to State,
Whose loyal, sorrowing cities wait
To honor all they can
The dust of that good man.

Go, grandly borne, with such a train
As greatest kings might die to gain.
The just, the wise, the brave,
Attend thee to the grave.

And you, the soldiers of our wars,
Bronzed veterans, grim with noble scars
Salute him once again,
Your late commander--slain!

Yes, let your tears indignant fall,
But leave your muskets on the wall;
Your country needs you now
Beside the forge--the plough.

(When Justice shall unsheathe her brand,
If Mercy may not stay her hand,
Nor would we have it so,
She must direct the blow.)

And you, amid the master-race,
Who seem so strangely out of place,
Know ye who cometh? He
Who hath declared ye free.

Bow while the body passes--nay,
Fall on your knees, and weep, and pray!
Weep, weep--I would ye might--
Your poor black faces white!

And, children, you must come in bands,
With garlands in your little hands,
Of blue and white and red,
To strew before the dead.

So sweetly, sadly, sternly goes
The Fallen to his last repose.
Beneath no mighty dome,
But in his modest home;

The churchyard where his children rest,
The quiet spot that suits him best,
There shall his grave be made,
And there his bones be laid.

And there his countrymen shall come,
With memory proud, with pity dumb,
And strangers far and near,
For many and many a year.

For many a year and many an age,
While History on her ample page
The virtues shall enroll
On that Paternal Soul.

This poem was published in 1871 by Richard Henry Stoddard. He was a poet who lived (I think) in New York, and for a few years during the early 1860s he was very good friends with Edwin and Mary Devlin Booth. I think this is a pretty terrible poem--like a lot of Stoddard's work, it is simply too long! but the way he describes Lincoln, and the funeral train--it's so interesting, which pieces of propaganda he has swallowed.

And, since I really am a fan of Stoddard, even though he is sometimes (see above) embarrassing, here is some good news! The Michigan Historical Reprint Series has published a shiny new copy of The Poems of Richard Henry Stoddard! This includes a huge number of poems, from collections published throughout his life, and including his splendid narrative poem, The King's Bell. Go check it out!

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:54:27 GMT

Happy Birthday John Surratt!

We all have our own opinions of "Mr. S--tt," but since it is his birthday I will be nice. So here is a fond description of the man from a Very Reliable Source, his friend Louis Weichmann:

Among my earliest callers [after taking residence in Washington City] was John H. Surratt, whom I had not seen since leaving college. He was cordially received, for I was glad to see him. His appearance and manner had considerably changed since his departure from college. He was now more a man of the world, had a brusquer air, and was much bronzed.

We chatted gaily about old times and associates at the college. He was always treated kindly when he came to see me, nor can I complain of a want of civility on his part. There never was the slightest jar between us, and during the entire period of our acquaintance we never quarreled once. So far as one man can judge another, he was a young man of clean habits, upright and moral, and was entirely free of small vices, as smoking, drinking, and chewing.

--Louis J. Weichmann, A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln & of the Conspiracy of 1865

(Go buy yourselves a shirt to celebrate!)

so cool ~

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:47:44 GMT

check this out.

: D

sadly, seymour died shortly after this episode, in part, because of the fall mentioned at the start of the clip.

(I wonder what he thought of Mr. Seward?)

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:24:21 GMT

Suddenly today I felt more motivated than usual to actually figure out Weichmann's War Dept. friend Mr. Gleason (by which I really mean, learn more anecdotes so I can tell unflattering stories about him). To this purpose, does anybody know where I should go to find a decent book on 19th cent. Freemasonry? (He's listed as a member in several of their Massachussetts newsletters, I can try to dig up the actual reference if anybody's interested.)

My quick search on Amazon proves what I had already guessed--that there are a ton of books out there along the lines of "Freemasonry For Dummies!" and I would rather not have to sift through it all if I don't have to. So if any of you have already looked into this, I would love suggestions!

a review (or a rant, more like it) ~

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:58:00 GMT

i posted a review of Steers' Hartranft letterbook book on my own lj.

follow the fake lj cut to read it

i flocked it because i feel like it's kinda vitriolic (and i even tried to show restraint). if you are not on my flist, feel free to friend me (just let me know you came to the link through this group!)

: o p

541 H. Street

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:50:24 GMT

A friend linked me to a great article in the New York Times, about boarding houses in the nineteenth century!

It mostly seems to be a book report about what looks like a pretty good read from the 1850s:

In 1857, foreseeing that the phenomenon might not last forever, Thomas Butler Gunn undertook to record it for posterity in The Physiology of New York Boarding Houses.... “I wonder what they were!” Gunn imagines a future researcher asking, and for an answer, he provides chapters on the Hand-to-Mouth Boardinghouse, the Fashionable Boardinghouse Where You Don’t Get Enough to Eat and the Boardinghouse Where the Landlady Drinks, among other representative types.

Although the author of the article claims that "the unceasing drama of boardinghouse life — the flirtations, drunkenness, mutual irritation, backbiting, whining, eccentricity, conspiracy, chiseling and deceit — may come as a surprise," those of you who have spent any time with the Surratt family will not be surprised at all. (P. S., Kara just found proof in the LAS that the story about Anna smacking Weichmann for wearing blue pants is true!)

oh those silly booths ~

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:53:12 GMT

recently i posted about a project i brought home involving the experimental restoration of 14 volumes of Harper's Monthly Magazine. As I have been working on the books, I've been perusing some of the contents. In June of 1881 an article appeared about Edwin Booth. This opening is the sort of film-worthy anecdote that makes the Booths so irresistible, so I thought I would share it.

: D

p.s. the article respectfully makes no mention of that other brother.

x-posted to my own journal (sorry flist!).

Quite grateful, am I.

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:59:56 GMT

The Surratt Society Conference was excellent this year, Bungo and I had quite a lot of fun. What a wonderful field!

My mother was very sweet and purchased a copy of The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence for my thesis next year. As I was originally somewhat nervous about this volume, I thought I would review it.

It's a typed up, printed book containing all the documents from the LAS (M599, the documents assembled by Burnett before/during the trial) that aren't the Trial transcript or the newspaper articles at the end. William C. Edwards put the impressive work into transcribing them; Edward Steers Jr. wrote the annotations. It's a huge thing, of course, neatly printed in a heavy but attractive single volume, and sells for around $100. The pages are a pure joy to turn -- soft and smooth and satisfying!

The real deal on the goods:

Spelling errors have been fixed, except where the document is extremely poorly written or when a name is used. This makes it more readable, but less accurate.

It has (as can be expected in a work of this size in it's first printing) some index problems (see Atzerodt) such as the mentioned name not being on a page, or the document being on the page following. The index is of names and places, and respects differed spellings. This is the highlight of the printed volume -- you can flip back and forth between documents and the index with ease, looking up all those pesky characters.

I'm very grateful for this book, as Edwards did a great job judging every word and deciphering (figuratively!) sentences we have been puzzling over for a long time. However, probably due to the sheer number of documents, there are some mistakes and some licenses taken. The one letter that we analyzed thoroughly had a few of mistakes, some in spots key to the meaning, so if you are doing an indepth study of a document, I still recommend you go back to the original. I do not agree with all of the choices made, including on the transcription of some abbreviations. This book will same me many, many hours.

The annotations are quite brief but on almost every page They usually relate who a person is if their name is spelled slightly differently, or explain about a location mentioned. There is little speculation, indepth anlalysis, or reference to scholarship, but it's helpful nonetheless.

I got my copy signed by the two authors. It was my first time meeting Ed Steers, and I was, of course, somewhat curious. "I know everything there is to know about the Lincoln assassination," he said, and I laughed accordingly, thinking he was joking. He continued, to my horror quite serious, "but I'm interested to see what happens now that people have access to the original sources." Or that was approximately what he said, immediately after I had thanked him for publishing this book, since it would save me countless hours on the microfilm machine (which I love, but still). Perhaps he had not heard why I was so interested in this book, but I would like to note that should someone pick up pretty much any of the scholarship to come out of the field, they will find it has been based on...original sources.

This is a fantastic book, a valuable if expensive investment, and I have been having a jolly good time flipping through it, sometimes just for the feel. But I am a dork. I retract most of my previous concerns over it -- the reel and frame number are included for every source!! Thanks, Edwards & Steers.

AL WEICHMANN: NOVELIST EXTRAORDINAIRE!

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:08:24 GMT

The Conference is over, I learned so much! Also, I finally got a chance to look at some of the stuff faynudibranch got last year from the James O. Hall papers. There is some incredibly helpful stuff, but my favorite document has got to be an 1880s letter from Louis Weichmann to a reporter. The letter is written on Treasury Department stationary, in a Treasury Department envelope (I think this is where Weichmann was working at the time). The upper corner of the envelope looks like this (but with fancier type):

Treasury Department
Custom House, Philadelphia, Collector's Office
OFFICIAL!
Any person using this envelope without payment of
postage on private matters will be subject to
fine of Three Hundred Dollars!

Or, I think it says that--part of the message was obscured by the stamp that Weichmann very responsibly applied. Has anybody come across this kind of envelope before? (I imagine they must be pretty common!) Do you know what it actually says under the stamp?

Inside this spectacular envelope, Weichmann is spinning another one of his silly elaborations to the historical record--in this one, John Wilkes Booth gets mad over a statue of Lincoln. This fact has never been made public although I have -------- it to friends, says Weichmann, It was not brought out or crossexamined at the conspiracy trial and probably did not occur to my mind then.

Yeah, right. He's such a liar, but why? Did he figure, since he was lying about everything else anyway, that he might as well completely turn his life into a foreshadow-filled novel?

I'm just missing one word out of this literary gem--can any of you figure out Weichmann's chicken scratch?

Surratt Society Conference

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:13:24 GMT

I know most of you live in inconvenient places for this, but faynudibranch and I will be attending the 2009 Surratt Society Conference this month (March)! There will be a lot of smart people speaking about exciting topics like the American Bastille and Mary Lincoln and Catholics! If this sounds exciting to you and you don't already know about it, check out the Surratt Society webpage to learn more. Early registration (cheaper) closes 10 March, so if you want to go move quickly! The conference itself is going to be held Saturday, 21 March.

And, while I'm advertising for them anyway, you should all definitely sign up for Surratt Society memberships! It costs only $7 for the whole year and they will send you a yellow newsletter every month full of good articles. I forgot to renew this year and missed about three of them, I regret it so much.

BOOTH (May 16-June 6)

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:26:36 GMT

For those of you who will be in New York this summer, check out this play! I'm certainly going to!

Generations collide as two of the greatest Shakespearean actors of all time take on their most challenging roles as father and son. Junius Booth, a gifted but tortured actor of the 19th century acclaimed throughout America for his vigorous performances of Shakespeare, discovers that his young son Edwin shares his passion for acting. Worried that Edwin will also inherit the emotional struggles that plague him, Junius takes Edwin under his wing to guide his career. This newly revised version of Austin Pendleton's family drama tracks the relationship between the father and son as they grapple with each other's passions and fears.

by Austin Pendleton
directed by Eric Parness

http://www.ticketcentral.com/showdetails2.asp?showid=1961

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:52:44 GMT

I was out of school today, and I spent most of my time on Flickr. (I know, how productive of me.)

Two of my more, um... Interesting finds: Here and here.

ISO Lincoln Videos

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:43:03 GMT

My family and I are moving last week, and my wife and I went scorched-earth through the literally thousands of VHS tapes that were just as literally gathering dust. I am afraid we may have accidentally pitched a VHS tape of the Sandburg's Lincoln miniseries that ran on NBC in the 1970s. It starred Hal Holbrook as Lincoln and Sada Thompson as Mary Todd Lincoln.

On the same cassette, more importantly, I had They've Killed President Lincoln, narrated by Richard Basehart. None of these have been released on DVDs.

Does anyone on this group have these? If so, please contact me privately. I will provide you with blank media (VHS tape, DVD) to make a copy for me. I pledge that I will not use them commercially--they will just be for my own personal viewing.

Where's Adam Badeau? A Timeless Game, by request

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:34:20 GMT

that we made up. Wait, no, it's just what historians do.

FIND ADAM BADEAU! Here's how to play:

Step 1:

Study these images carefully (and tell me if you can find better quality copies of them)

Step 2:
Find Adam Badeau! See if you can identify him in these group shots.

Challenge #1

Challenge #2

Challenge #3

Challenge #4

...It's ok, Challenge #1 is as far as I can tell near impossible. Bungo and I think we have the other three, though, so let us know your opinions...or contribute more pictures of Grant's staff <3.

And there you have it! Where's Adam Badeau? is a game not for the faint of heart.

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:00:51 GMT

New member, and new to the whole knowledge of the conspiracy/Booth's escape/etc. (Don't shoot me, please!)

I came upon it in a really unspectacular way: I was casually watching The History Channel sometime last week, and The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth came on. Prior to this show, all I knew about John Wilkes Booth was that he shot Lincoln on April 14th, 1865. The only thing Seward ever did was purchase Alaska.

I wish I had known about it before, and I really don't see why I didn't. Shouldn't something that major (and interesting) be mentioned in my AP US history class last year, at least...?

Since watching the show, I've read Manhunt (Pretty much the only book available about it at my library... Yay little towns!), researched a lot online, and put countless books on my to-read list that I hope to purchase sometime.

Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you all!

It has started -- and they've been planning this for years!

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:57:33 GMT

Happy 200th birthday Abraham Lincoln! All year long! February 12th, 1809, to be more precise. But who bothers with that?

http://www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/

Check out the events nearest you! Prepare for all the men dressed up as Lincoln! The new penny with stiff depictions of scenes from his life! I love it!

From the helpful Surratt Society website, Prisoner of Shark Island screening and Hartranft in the D.C. area.

Prisoner of Shark Island, which minstrel_ivare bought me, is a very old, terribly racist, and pretty much entirely inaccurate portrayal of Dr. Mudd's inprisonment on Dry Tortugas. It's hilarious and I highly recommend it. It's pretty absurd and offensive, I warn you.

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Just thought I'd note: It's coming Feb. 1st.

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:38:18 GMT

Product Description
Based on rare archival material, obscure trial manuscripts, and interviews with relatives of the conspirators and the manhunters, CHASING LINCOLN'S KILLER is a fast-paced thriller about the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth: a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia.

"This story is true. All the characters are real and were alive during the great manhunt of April 1865. Their words are authentic and come from original sources: letters, manuscripts, trial transcripts, newspapers, government reports, pamphlets, books and other documents. What happened in Washington, D.C., that spring, and in the swamps and rivers, forests and fields of Maryland and Virginia during the next twelve days, is far too incredible to have been made up."

So begins this fast-paced thriller that tells the story of the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth and gives a day-by-day account of the wild chase to find this killer and his accomplices. Based on James Swanson's bestselling adult book MANHUNT: THE 12-DAY CHASE FOR LINCOLN'S KILLER, this young people's version is an accessible look at the assassination of a president, and shows readers Abraham Lincoln the man, the father, the husband, the friend, and how his death impacted those closest to him.

-- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160775987X/ref=pe_5050_11118780_pe_snp_87X

Interesting that in his attempt to re-write the same book he markets it as both more young-adult and more historically accurate.

Better news includes a copy of Chamlee for Christmas and successful team attempts to find Adam Badeau in group photographs :).

Lincoln's Assassins: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial, and Punishment

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:30:47 GMT

ROY Z. CHAMLEE'S BOOK IS GOING BACK IN PRINT!!! In over-priced paperback! I am so excited.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786440880/ref=pe_5050_10745680_pe_snp_880

Not-so-secretly I am a huge fan of this book. Also am still looking for an address for the author. I know Steers (and others) trashed it for being behind the times, but Chamlee wrote this so independent of other scholarship that it's actually packed with thrilling and fascinating, if sometimes misinterpreted, anecdotes. One of my absolute favorites.

Just wanted to celebrate.

(ironically you can buy a used hardback for the same price as pre-ordering the new paperback. But in my world, the more Chamlees in circulation the better.)

I still love him best of all <3

feynudibranch@gmail.com — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:48:32 GMT

First and most importantly, happy birthday Edwin Booth!

I posted one of Kitty's stories about him at my personal journal.

Second, I don't know how much free time the rest of you have, but I got a pretty great email from Ancestry.com this evening. They're asking for volunteers to transcribe old documents. This is the best reason for the Internet to exist, as far as I am concerned, so please help them out if you can. *

Help save the world's stories.

Many of the world's records are deteriorating faster than any one organization can preserve them. That's why Ancestry.com has recently introduced The World Archives Project - a collaborative effort that involves thousands of people around the world in helping to key records that are important to them, and vital for future generations everywhere.

How it works:

Ancestry will continue to digitally scan physical records.

Contributors like you download and install a small free keying program.

You select collections you'd like to work on in the program.

You will have access to newly scanned images that you'll then key. It's as easy as interpreting what you see in the record, and typing it in a field.

Ancestry.com publishes a free index of the keyed information that anyone can search and access.

As a contributor to the World Archives Project, you'll help Ancestry.com publish more records quicker than ever before-greatly increasing the number of new records digitized and indexed each year. Soon, active contributors (those keying at least 900 records per quarter) can take advantage of several benefits including:

Free access to all images associated with all collections keyed through the Ancestry.com World Archives Project

Discounts on their current Ancestry.com memberships upon renewal

The ability to vote on which collections are indexed next (and thereby suggest collections that may be of personal interest to them)

We invite you to try the Ancestry.com World Archives Project and learn how easy it is to preserve stories for you, as well as future generations worldwide.

Download and start now
http://email.ancestry.com/cgi-bin13/DM/y/ey5L0YRbos0Jwq0rdn0GS

or Learn more about the project here
http://email.ancestry.com/cgi-bin13/DM/y/ey5L0YRbos0Jwq0rdo0GT

Currently, this is a program for Windows-based PCs only.

* I'm going to play the hypocrite and wait until winter break before I sign up...but you can all set a better example for me!