John Wilkes Booth "Buried At Sea" - Remembering Lincoln

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Still Image from May. 20, 1865

John Wilkes Booth "Buried at Sea"

• Full Title

  John Wilkes Booth "Buried at Sea" - Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper Drawing

• Description

  In the May 20th, 1865 edition of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly newspaper, this image was printed inaccurately depicting the burial of President Lincoln's assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth. The federal government was worried what the public would do if they buried the body, so they staged a burial at sea and then secretly buried the assassin in an unmarked location. In 1869 they released the body to Booth's family and he was reburied in their family plot in Baltimore, Maryland. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly was a literary and news publication founded in 1855 which ran until 1922. It was one of several started by publisher and illustrator Frank Leslie. Leslie was a British engraver who came to the United States in 1848. The Illustrated Weekly followed a tested and proven formula of carefully combining elements of war, politics, art, science, travel and exploration, literature and the fine arts in each issue, enhanced with between 16 and 32 illustrations. By 1897 its circulation had grown to an estimated 65,000 copies.

• Source

  The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection

• Rights

  To request rights and permissions to use Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection images in research or publications, please download our image rights permission form: https://www.lincolncollection.org/access/image-rights-permissions/.

• Tags

  • man

  • body

  • burial

  • misinformation

• Cite this Item

  Frank Leslie. "John Wilkes Booth "Buried at Sea" - Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper Drawing". Frank Leslie . Remembering Lincoln. Web. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/1110

Related resources

• Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection

• Item Type

  Still Image

• Creator

  Frank Leslie

• Publisher

  Frank Leslie

• Date

  May 20, 1865

• Region

  Union states

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Related resources

• Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection

Still Image from May. 20, 1865

John Wilkes Booth "Buried at Sea" - Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper Drawing

• Description

  In the May 20th, 1865 edition of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly newspaper, this image was printed inaccurately depicting the burial of President Lincoln's assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth. The federal government was worried what the public would do if they buried the body, so they staged a burial at sea and then secretly buried the assassin in an unmarked location. In 1869 they released the body to Booth's family and he was reburied in their family plot in Baltimore, Maryland. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly was a literary and news publication founded in 1855 which ran until 1922. It was one of several started by publisher and illustrator Frank Leslie. Leslie was a British engraver who came to the United States in 1848. The Illustrated Weekly followed a tested and proven formula of carefully combining elements of war, politics, art, science, travel and exploration, literature and the fine arts in each issue, enhanced with between 16 and 32 illustrations. By 1897 its circulation had grown to an estimated 65,000 copies.

• Source

  The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection

• Rights

  To request rights and permissions to use Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection images in research or publications, please download our image rights permission form: https://www.lincolncollection.org/access/image-rights-permissions/.

• Creator

  Frank Leslie

• Publisher

  Frank Leslie

• Date

  May 20, 1865

Remembering Lincoln

Copyright 2014 Ford's Theatre. All Objects and images copyright their respective instutitions.

American Express is proud to sponsor Remembering Lincoln.This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-10-13-0274-13.

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