From the Diaries of Rubens Peale (1784-1865), diary entries which recount the news of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination and funeral procession, April 1865. 1 volume, 21.5 x 34 cm. Rubens Peale diaries, 1855-1865.

Peale, a still life and animal painter, was 81 on April 15, 1865, when he recorded the "sad news of the murder of President Lincon [sic], he was shot while attending a performance at Fords' Theater last night in Washington. The assassin entered his private box and shot him in back of his head and then escaped, the assassin's name is ______," and there Peale left a blank, presumably to fill in when the information was available. Peale, who was in Philadelphia, described the arrival of Lincoln's body to the city, the crowds, and other funeral details. On April the 22nd he wrote, "The corpse arrived this afternoon from Harrisburg and it was dark, and although the square was brilliantly illuminated with greek lights each side of the great walk Red, Blue & White, which made a most brilliant appearance and lighted up the wholes square & streets [even?]  yet much of the procession near lost to us. The crowd was so dence [sic] in Walnut Street that police could scarcely keep the crowd back." The following day, the elderly Peale stood on line for most of the morning attempting to view the corpse, but pressing crowds forced him to give up just as he reached the entrance to the hall. That evening he and his daughter Mary Jane were granted  permission to enter a back door affording "a fine opportunity of viewing the corpse and decorations of the hall, which was totally covered with black cloth except the statue & portraits of General Washington & wife. I staid [sic] one hour and left Mary gazing on the corpse, she intending to paint a portrait of him..."

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