Went to Ford’s Theatre this weekend, and to the Peterson House across the street, where President Lincoln died. It got me thinking about a lot of things: race, the presidency, safety, acting and spurs, to name a few. It got me thinking a lot more about archiving and the people behind it — who made the decision to save Lincoln’s clothes? The pillow with the blood? Bits of the nooses that were used to hang Booth’s coconspirators? Did someone sell those as souvenirs? And what about the things they didn’t save?
On the way out, we passed the tower of books that had been written about Lincoln. I’d love to see towers of books on other subjects, too. Tea parties? Dreams? Star Wars? (I will also note that I didn’t spy picture books on Lincoln in this stack, but that I didn’t obsessively search, so I will just trust they were in there somewhere….)
Tower of Lincoln books