"Washington & Lincoln Apotheosis", C. 1865 Card, Collection John T. Ford Family

4 x 2.5 inches. Photographic print laid to card. Bumps to corners and light soiling.

The "Washington & Lincoln (Apotheosis)" circa 1865 is a memorial carte-de-visite (CDV) created after President Lincoln’s assassination. It depicts George Washington welcoming Lincoln into heaven, often showing them in clouds with angels and a laurel wreath, symbolizing Lincoln's ascension to a "secular saint" or martyr.

With the following text letterpress printed to bottom of card:

“Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year of 1865, by J. A. Arthur, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. WASHINGTON & LINCOLN (APOTHEOSIS.) S.J. Ferris, Del.* Photo. and Pub. By Phil. Pho. Co., 750 Chestnut St.”

*Delineator (artist)

With certificate of provenance from Rare Nest Gallery Chicago. PMK0006WL

BIOGRAPHY: John T. Ford

1829, Baltimore – 1894, Baltimore

Ford was born on April 16, 1829. After completing school, he left Baltimore to work for his uncle, a tobacco merchant in Richmond, Virginia. Ford did not find the work to his liking and soon found employment with a bookseller in the city. When he tired of that, he returned to Baltimore and found work as the road manager for George Kunkel’s Nightingale Minstrels in 1851. After a successful tour with the company, Ford, Kunkel and another partner leased the Holliday Street Theatre in Baltimore and Ford was thereafter a theater owner, manager and promoter. In time, Ford would own the Holliday Street Theatre as well as theaters in Richmond, Philadelphia and three in Washington, D.C., including the one to which his name is most closely associated, on Tenth Street.

It was there that John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Ford knew most of the best stage performers of his day and was well-acquainted with the Booth family. Because of his association with the Booths, his management of the theater and perhaps because he was from Maryland, home of most of the assassination conspirators, Ford and two brothers were arrested in the wake of the assassination. The Federal government held him for 39 days and seized Ford’s Theatre. His close association with the events of the assassination would be linked to Ford for the rest of his life. In the end, the Federal government compensated Ford for the loss of his theater and fully exonerated him, so he was able to continue his success in the theater world. Also, Ford was an active member of Baltimore civic and business life. Ford married Edith Branch Andrews of Hanover County, Virginia, outside Richmond. They had eleven children who survived to adulthood. Ford died on March 14, 1894 and is buried in Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore. Source: Maryland Historical Society

We are selling several hundred pieces related to John T. Ford, Ford’s Theater and Ford’s descendants who were all figures in American theater from 1840 – 1970.  See my Ebay store – category “American Theater History” for updates.