BOSTON (AP) — A pair of front-row balcony tickets to Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865 — the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth — sold at auction for $262,500, according to a Boston-based auction house.
The tickets are stamped with the date, “Ford’s Theatre, APR 14, 1865, This Night Only.” They bear the left-side imprint “Ford’s Theatre, Friday, Dress Circle!” and are filled out in pencil with section (“D”) and seat numbers “41″ and “42”, according to RR Auction.
The handwritten seating assignments and the circular April 14th-dated stamp match those found on other known authentic tickets, including a used ticket stub in the collection of Harvard University’s Houghton Library, auction officials said.
Political Cartoons View All 1179 ImagesAs Lincoln slumped forward in his seat, Booth jumped onto the stage and fled out a back door.
Also sold at Saturday's auction was a Lincoln-signed first edition of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, which fetched nearly $594,000.
Persons:
Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth —, “, ” Booth, Lincoln, Booth, Petersen, Douglas
Organizations:
BOSTON, Theatre, Harvard University’s Houghton Library, Harvard, Washington , D.C, Lincoln
Locations:
Boston, Washington ,, Virginia, Lincoln