Beschreibung:

LINCOLN, Abraham -- ASSASSINATION]. War Department, Washington, April 20, 1865. $100,000 Reward! The Murderer of our Late Beloved President, Abraham Lincoln, is still at large. $50,000 Reward will be paid...in addition to any reward offered by Municipal Authorities, or State Executives. $25,000 Reward Will be paid for the apprehension of John H. Surratt, one of Booth's Accomplices. $25,000 Reward will be paid for... David C. Herold, another of Booth's accomplices. ...Let the stain of innocent blood be removed from the land by the arrest and punishment of the murderers. All good citizens are exhorted to aid public justice on this occasion...[signed:] Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War . [Washington, D.C.], 20 April 1865. (Kunhardt & Kunhardt, Twenty Days , p.106; The Last Best Hope of Earth , ed. J. Rhodehamel and T. F. Schwartz, 1993, pp.68-69; J. Swanson and D. Weinberg, Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution, an Illustrated History , Santa Fe, 2001, p. 50, fig.38). Folio (23¾ x 12 1/8 in.), three early albumen photos attached in small frames at the top (Surratt, Booth, Herold), evenly browned, slight wear to old folds, a few small holes neatly patched without loss, backed with linen, neatly laid down on matboard . "LET THE STAIN OF INNOCENT BLOOD BE REMOVED FROM THE LAND" PROBABLY THE MOST FAMOUS REWARD POSTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY At the time it was circulated, only John Wilkes Booth, Herold and Surratt had been positively identified as part of the assassination conspiracy. Herold escaped with Booth through Maryland to Virginia, where, six days after this poster, they were surrounded by a detachment of Union soldiers in a tobacco barn. Herold surrendered, but Booth refused to give himself up and was fatally shot. (Herold was subsequently tried, convicted and executed with other conspirators on 6 June 1865. Surratt escaped to Europe but was brought back for trial in 1867.) The broadside is known in two separate printings (the present corresponds to the second printing, first issue): First printing . Makes no provision for the mounting of photographic images at the top; vertical dimension approximately 580mm. (22 7/8 in.) In the description of Booth at the bottom, text reads "and wears a heavy black mustache." Herold is described as "a little, chunky man, quite a youth, and wears a very thin moustache." Second printing, first issue : From an entirely new setting of type, showing three small three-sided woodcut frames at the top, for photographs of the conspirators to be inserted; maximum vertical dimension roughly (24 3/16 in.). In the description of Booth, the text is the same as the first printing: "and wears a heavy, black moustache." The description of "David C. Harold" ( sic ) is far more detailed than in the earlier version, here extending to three lines. A "Notice" regarding other rewards is added at the bottom. Second printing, second issue : Identical to the second printing, first issue, except the Booth description adds that he "wore a heavy mustache, which there is some reason to believe has been shaved off." A small number of copies of the second printing of the broadside have carte-de-visite albumens attached, like this example (the copy at the Huntington Library has cartes of Booth and Herold, but not Surratt). Most of the extant copies were evidently not furnished with photographs at the time of their issue. Of the copies sold at auction in the last 22 years, only three (this, the Crocker copy, sold in 1979, and one other) possessed early photos affixed. Carte-de-visites were affixed later to the Goodwin copy (sale, Christie's, 5 December 1997, lot 90). Provenance : The Roy P. Crocker Collection (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 28 November 1979, lot 244) -- Malcom S. Forbes (sale, Christie's, 27 March 2002, lot 107).