Abraham Lincoln Died Here?

On the night of April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth. The dying President was removed from Ford's Theater and taken across the street to Petersen House, where he remained in a coma for nine hours before finally dying.

These photographs at the Petersen House were originally taken on a class trip to Washington D.C. in 1991. The original bed and other items from the room were purchased by a collector and are now (reportedly) on display at the Chicago History Museum, and replicas have replaced the originals at the Petersen House. The pillow with the bloodstained pillowcase, however, are the originals that were used by Lincoln.

I scanned the negatives of these photos at a variety of light levels and merged them together in Photomatix for HDR effect.

(May, 1991)