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This photo was found
inserted inside a book on Abraham Lincoln published in 1901 that
Dr. DeSalvo found at an antique shop. Below
is the caption that came with the photo.
The
Stage of Ford’s Theatre
From
a rare photograph, never before published, made immediately after
the tragedy, the flag torn by Booth’s spur still hanging before
the President’s box. Many have supposed that John Wilkes Booth
sprang from the stage into the President’s box on that fatal
night in 1865. This rare photograph, never before published,
graphically illustrates the story. It shows that the boxes were on
the stage within the procenium arch and high enough up to be on a
level with the gallery. It was an easy matter for Booth to come
through the passage way, open the door to the box, observe the
occupants, commit the deed, leap to the state and disappear. And
that is what he did. The flag which caught Booth’s spur and
threw him became the “mute avenger of its country’s chief.”
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