Hanging of the Lincoln Conspirators
Artist
Alexander Gardner
(American, born Scotland, 1821 - 1882)
Date1865
MediumAlbumen print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 6 7/8 × 8 15/16 inches (17.46 × 22.7 cm)
Mount: 13 1/16 × 18 1/16 inches (33.18 × 45.88 cm)
Mount: 13 1/16 × 18 1/16 inches (33.18 × 45.88 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.295
SignedAttribution typed on paper (partially torn), and pasted below image to mount recto, bottom center, in black type: "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by A. GARDNER, in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Distr".
InscribedInscribed on mount recto, bottom center, in brown pen: "Sic Semper Sicariis / (Thus be it ever with assassins)"
MarkingsOn mount recto, lower left corner, in brown pen: "No 4"
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of four figures with covered faces and bound hands and feet hanging from a gallows. Uniformed men stand in rows in the grassy landscape below.Exhibition History
Developing Greatness: the Origins of American Photography, 1839-1885. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 9 – December 30, 2007, no. 357.
On July 7, 1865, four men condemned for conspiring to murder Abraham Lincoln were put to death by hanging. Alexander Gardner, who was one of the most important photographers of the American Civil War (1861–65), was given special permission to photograph the execution. These extraordinary views were likely made for the Secret Service and the government, though prints were also sold to the general public.
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