1865 Eyewitness Account of Lincoln Assassination
GUEST: I have brought in a letter that was written by my husband's great-grandfather. He was in the Ford Theatre when Lincoln was shot. And that next day, he wrote a, uh, detailed account of the shooting to his sister Hattie. And it's been passed down. At one point, it was tacked up to some high school bulletin boards, and they realized, "Oh, it might be too precious for that."
APPRAISER: It is an eyewitness account of Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865. And we actually know it's written in the evening of April 15, because he mentions that Lincoln has already died. He's, he's shot the night before, and he lingers the next day, but then he dies about 7:30. It's really well-written, it's really vivid. I'll read just the first paragraph to you.
GUEST: Okay, yep.
APPRAISER: "Dear Hattie, I'm too excited and nervous to write or compose a letter after having witnessed and been subject to the shock of the most horrible and atrocious murder history records. You will probably receive the painful intelligence, ere this reaches you, of the murder of President Lincoln and the attempted assassination of Secretary Seward."
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Have you ever noticed anything weird about this letter?
GUEST: I, I didn't.
APPRAISER: He doesn't know who did it.
GUEST: (gasps) That's true.
APPRAISER: He doesn't mention Booth.
GUEST: He doesn't.
APPRAISER: He doesn't know yet.
GUEST: No, you're right.
APPRAISER: Right? He talks about the "dastardly character"...
GUEST: ...acter...
APPRAISER: ...who, "who did this terrible deed"...
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: ...but he doesn't know his name yet.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Other people knew it. I mean, it really is as, as if...
GUEST: Sure.
APPRAISER: ...a teen idol assassinated the president. Like, Booth was famous and handsome and a stage star.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: But, so people in the theater saw him...
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: ...but it wasn't public knowledge yet.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: And he didn't know.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: He didn't recognize him when he ran across the stage.
GUEST: Huh.
APPRAISER: And then he sort of closes with the shock that you would, one would feel after...
GUEST: Right, right, for witnessing that.
APPRAISER: ...a really terrible nati, national disaster.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: A letter like this sort of breaks a lot of the rules of manuscript collecting, because usually, the first thing we ask is, "Who's the author? Who signed it?" Right?
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: This is a letter where content trumps everything else.
GUEST: Mm.
APPRAISER: A few letters in the past couple of years of eyewitness accounts have sold...
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: ...but they were written by s, somebody who was at the theater across the street, and came out and saw Lincoln get carried...
GUEST: Oh, I see.
APPRAISER: Wasn't in the theater.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: Or it was written ten days after the assassination, not right when he learned that Lincoln had died.
GUEST: Oh, I see, yeah.
APPRAISER: So there's a real immediacy here. I would put an auction estimate of $20,000 to $30,000 on it.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: And it probably would blow way past that. Wow! I would suggest that you insure it at $40,000.
GUEST: Okay. (chuckles) We were thinking a couple hundred dollars.
APPRAISER: No-- it's amazing.
GUEST: We're very surprised.
$20,000 Auction
$40,000 Insurance
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Understanding Our Appraisals
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Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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