[Lincoln's Hat] According to tradition, Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) wore this top hat to Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865, when John Wilkes Booth assassinated him. He died on April 15.

The Civil War (1861-1865) had consumed Lincoln's presidency. Despite initial military defeats, his resolve to preserve the Union remained firm, and he helped formulate the North's eventually successful was strategy. The Emancipation Proclamation declaring slaves in the seceded states "forever free" was a carefully calculated part of that strategy.

Courtesy of the National Museum of American History, from the War Department, January 25, 1902.
Abraham Lincoln's Top Hat, mid-19th century

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