Newseum Exhibit Focuses on Covering Hunt for Lincoln's Assassin

By: Joe Strupp A new exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., will focus on the press's involvement in the hunt for Abraham Lincoln's assassin and how it "marked a turning point in how news was reported."

?Manhunt: Chasing Lincoln?s Killer? opens Saturday, Feb. 14, at the news museum, according to a release, which adds that it includes 40 artifacts and documents from the personal collection of James L. Swanson, author of ?Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln?s Killer.?

Among the artifacts to be displayed:

? An original Ford?s Theatre playbill for ?Our American Cousin,? the play Lincoln was attending the night he was shot.

? An original poster advertising a $100,000 reward for the capture of the assassins.

? Rare newspaper extra editions reporting the assassination.

? "Two priceless artifacts" ? a fragment from the dress worn by ?Our American Cousin? lead actress Laura Keene and stained with Lincoln?s blood, and a lock of Lincoln?s hair framed with flowers from his coffin.

"The news of Lincoln?s assassination swept the country with a speed that would have been impossible before the invention of the transcontinental telegraph in 1861," a release said. "The exhibit follows the story of the presidency and death of Lincoln in the same way that Americans who were alive in the 1860s learned about it: through reports in the press. Newseum visitors will see original newspapers chronicling the assassination and the 12-day chase for Lincoln?s killer and will learn how the news was reported and transmitted across the nation.

?Manhunt also features dramatic historic photographs taken by Mathew Brady, whose Civil War photography paved the way for modern photojournalism, and Alexander Gardner, his prot?g?-turned-rival. These images include Gardner?s photograph of Lincoln?s second inauguration ceremony; Brady?s photographs of Lincoln, Booth and Boston Corbett, the soldier who fired the shot that killed Booth; and Gardner?s exclusive photographs of the captured conspirators and their execution."

More information can be found at www.newseum.org. The exhibit will run through Dec. 31, 2009.