Details
BOOTH, JOHN WILKES, Assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Carte-de-visite photograph inscribed and signed ("Yours affectionately J. Wilkes Booth") n.d. [1862]. 102 x 52mm. (3 15/16 x 2 7/16in.) including heavy card mount, double gilt-rules at edges, corners rounded (probably to facilitate insertion in an album), not affecting image, soiled and darkened, mainly at edges, a few flecks on image. An albumen print, with printed legend at base of mount and on verso "Case & Getchell, Photographic Artists...Boston." A good seated portrait depicting the youthful, well-dressed Booth holding a narrow cane or walking stick. Signed in ink in the right upper portion of the print: "Yours Affectionately J. Wilkes Booth."
In 1862 Booth posed in Boston for a number of images, which were originally published by Silsbee, Case & Co., or by the firm of Case & Getchell. The seated poses, with Booth holding his cane, are among the best-known photographs of the actor and future assassin. The present image is the one Booth apparently liked best and the one he most often presented to admirers. Guttman, John Wiles Booth Himself, no. 21.
In 1862 Booth posed in Boston for a number of images, which were originally published by Silsbee, Case & Co., or by the firm of Case & Getchell. The seated poses, with Booth holding his cane, are among the best-known photographs of the actor and future assassin. The present image is the one Booth apparently liked best and the one he most often presented to admirers. Guttman, John Wiles Booth Himself, no. 21.