POLITICAL TREASURES

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Two front-row balcony tickets from the night Abraham Lincoln was assassinated inside Ford’s Theatre have been sold at auction for a whopping $262,500,

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The trapezoid-shaped tickets — with a corner believed

to have been clipped on admission — are from the

DC playhouse’s performance of “Our American

Cousin” and dated Apr. 14, 1865. They are for

seats 41 and 42,with section “D” penciled in for

the dress circle area of the theater.

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The tickets reportedly offered an unobstructed view of the

murder of the president, who was shot by Confederate

sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. 

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The Presidential box occupied by the Lincolns was also located on the dress circle, more or less directly across from the front row seats represented by these two tickets,”  

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“This type of Ford’s Theatre ticket for April 14, 1865, is exceedingly rare — auction records reveal no other examples offered since their original sale as part of the Forbes Collection in 2002,” 

Another rare ticket from the performance, which is kept at Harvard’s Houghton Library, was used to verify the authenticity of the two dress circle stubs through consistencies .

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Surprisingly, dress circle tickets were not the most expensive sold at Ford’s Theatre that evening, despite Lincoln’s attendance. They rang up at a total of 75 cents, whereas orchestra seating was priced at $1, according to an advertisement archived in the Library of Congress.

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