SPRINGFIELD – The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM) today announced it has obtained an artifact from a consequential moment in American history. Thanks to a generous donor, the ALPLM has acquired an audience chair that was in use at Ford’s Theatre the night of Lincoln’s assassination.
The chair will go on display this summer as part of a special exhibit called “The Second American Revolution.” The exhibit, part of Illinois’ commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, will explore how America was changed by the Civil War and the emancipation of millions of enslaved people.
“The chair is a tangible link to an event that for most people is a few lines in a history book,” said Christina Shutt, Executive Director of the ALPLM. “It will help us tell the story of Lincoln’s assassination from new perspectives.”
Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. He died the next morning.
Dr. Ian Hunt, Head of Acquisitions at the ALPLM, said a strong museum collection includes both one-of-a-kind treasures and seemingly mundane objects from important moments in history. Everyday objects help people connect more directly to a long-ago person or event, he said. “This chair will help us vividly portray the audience’s perspective at the time of Lincoln’s assassination,” Hunt said.
Most of the audience at Ford’s Theatre sat in individual chairs instead of benches or rows of connected seats. Nearly 1,000 chairs were removed from the theater after the federal government purchased the building in 1866. A National Park Service report says they were probably used for seating in government offices and then destroyed over the years when new furniture was purchased.
Retired Wake Forest University dean Gordon McCray and his wife, Coleen, chose to donate one of these remaining chairs to the ALPLM. McCray purchased the chair at a 1980s charity auction from a Baltimore family. The McCrays wanted the chair to have a home where it would be protected and occasionally displayed to the public.
“We’ve had this amazing piece of history for decades, and now we want others to have the chance to see it and learn from it,” Gordon McCray said. “We’re honored that it will have a permanent home in Abraham Lincoln’s hometown.”
The design of the chair matches what can be seen in a Mathew Brady photograph of the theater’s interior after Lincoln’s assassination. The ALPLM also contacted the family that originally owned the chair and confirmed that the one McCray purchased had been in the family since shortly after the Civil War.
The mission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is to inspire civic engagement through the diverse lens of Illinois history and share with the world the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. We pursue this mission through a combination of rigorous scholarship and high-tech showmanship built on the bedrock of the ALPLM’s unparalleled collection of historical materials – roughly 13 million items from all eras of Illinois history.
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