Photograph of the Painting, "Death-Bed of Lincoln, April 15, 1865"

Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865 plunged Americans into deep mourning. Prints and card photographs helped people to understand the tragic event. This is a photograph of a painting made in 1866. It depicts a room of the Petersen House, where the president died, across the street from Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. Not all of these people were actually in the room the morning Lincoln died.