Ford's Theatre

I recently watched the movie, "the Conspirators."  Have you seen it?  It's pretty good, well minus the major violence at the beginning.  Anyway, it's the story of the assassination of  Abraham Lincoln and the aftermath for one of the accused conspirators. 

Lincoln has always interested me.  His has always been my favorite monument.  How many evenings did I sit on his steps and contemplate life?  When I worked at the House of Representatives, I often stopped to see the stand located under the crypt that held his body as he laid in state in the rotunda.  The same stand (let's be honest, not same one, but you get the idea) is used when anyone is laid in state in the Capitol Building.  He impacted our country so deeply and led us through a time that could have changed our entire course. 

Last week, when Tami and Katy were in town, we went in to see Ford's Theater.  It has been years since I've been down there.  I think the last time was when I lived here before and Mom, Dad and Matt came to visit.  It has been completely redone and is awesome.  As someone who has studied instructional design, I appreciate a display well done and this whole experience was one of them.

We started out with a tour of the theatre, presented by a National Park Ranger in period costuming.  I do love a good story teller.  He walked us through the events leading up to that fateful night and pointed to the box where Lincoln was shot in the head. 

 

From there we moved over to the house where he was brought and saw the bed where he died.  Very eerie to think of what happened in this place.  The museum there is really the best I've seen and living in DC with the Smithsonians, I've seen some good museums.  They did such a good job at making you feel like you were there.

I was surprised to see all of the artifacts that they still have.  It seems like anything having to do with the day was kept.  There were guns (from those hunting the conspirators), keys that were found on John Wilkes Boothe, a pillow with Lincoln's blood stain and even his garb from the evening.  I think seeing a person's clothing and personal items are the most telling/interesting.

My favorite element was the stairway.  Up the center is a display of books written about Lincoln.  There were hundreds, if not thousands. 

I can't wait to take Heber down there.  It has got to be one of the most interesting sites in DC.  I'd go down again just to see the exhibit.  So well done.