Anonymous,
Death of President Lincoln, c.1865, 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, purchase/gift of the Mahonri M. Young Estate, 1959.On this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, died after being shot the evening before. John Wilkes Booth shot the President in the back of the head while the President watched a play at Ford's Theatre, having crept into the President's box. Following the assassination, Booth leapt from the box and made his escape, though he was caught a short time later. President Lincoln immediately became unconscious after being shot. It was decided that moving him in a bumpy carriage back to the White House was out of the question, so the President was moved across the street from Ford's Theatre to the Peterson House. He died the next morning, April 15, 1865, at 7:22 AM. The Civil War had ended just a few days prior.