Lincoln's Hearse Posed for Viewing: Unusual Large Size

(LINCOLN). HENSZEY & CO. (Photographers). President Lincoln's Hearse. April 22, 1865. Designed and Constructed by E.S. Early, Undertaker...Philadelphia. Philadelphia: 1865. Image size: 12" x 13.". Damaged in all four corners, slightly affecting text at right bottom, considerably affecting text on left bottom. Image of hearse & most of background brick building fine. $4,750.00

Apparently unknown, and unusually large. Not in Meserve or Kunhardt and Kunhardt. A wonderful artifact from an unparalleled expression of public sentiment.

Copyright notice for Henszey & Co. visible, but notice of photographer lacking in lower left corner.

A fine, large, unencumbered view of the hearse to be used to display Lincoln's casket during the procession while in Philadelphia. Cf. Kunhardt & Kunhardt, Twenty Days, 147-51, with two views of the hearse as seen by mourners.

"The most noteworthy object was the specially built hearse. Drawn by eight black horses led by grooms, the vehicle's wheels were concealed from sight by a fuliginous valence." --Searcher, The Farewell to Lincoln (1965), 112.

As in other cities, the time demanded by grieving Philadelphians exceeded the time allotted by the schedule of the Lincoln Special. Consequently, the hearse remained a focus of public grief for some time after Lincoln's body had been removed, and continued its journey home.

"The commissioner of public property promised that if demand warranted he would retain the hearse in the [Independence] Square. The plumed vehicle had been placed at 6th and Chestnut streets Sunday morning, and remained there throughout the day, and attracted much attention. A rumor flew about in the afternoon that a keg of powder had been placed underneath it." The object turned out to be a canteen mug with coffee grounds in the bottom. (Searcher 118-19).

"...it was almost six-thirty before the coffin was put on the hearse and the immense procession that had been planned got under way. The hearse, a marvel of black cloth and silver fringes and tassels, was the first of the funeral cars to have white plumes as well as black. Three big white feathers nodded at the top center of the canopy as eight black horses--the largest number of horses yet--hauled Lincoln toward Independence Square. Afterward Philadelphians claimed that theirs was the most gigantic, the most impressive procession of any in all the cities." The elements described, particularly the white and black tassels and the feathers at the top of the canopy, are highly visible.