Exceedingly scarce carte-de-visite (CDV) portrait of John Surratt, a Lincoln Assassination conspirator. The image depicts a young and ordinary-looking Surratt in a full-length pose, clad in a simple dark suit typical of the Civil War era. His hand rests on a photographer’s prop table. His typical appearance belies a fascinating life. During the Civil War, Surratt served as a spy and courier for the Confederate Secret Service. Dr. Samuel Mudd, another Lincoln conspirator, introduced Surratt to John Wilkes Booth, and he agreed to participate in Booth’s original plot to kidnap the president. Surratt, Booth, and others laid in wait for the President’s carriage to pass, but Lincoln’s route changed and the scheme failed. Surratt was then suspected of involvement with Booth’s successful assassination of the President. Claiming innocence, he fled first to Canada and then to Europe. His mother Mary was later convicted and hanged. Surratt traveled around Europe for several years until his capture during a trip to Egypt. He was tried as an assassination conspirator but maintained his innocence, only admitting to his involvement in the first kidnapping plot. His gambit worked, as the hearing ended with a mistrial and Surratt was released. He spent the balance of his life farming, teaching, and raising a large family in Maryland, all the while distancing himself from the Lincoln Assassination and harboring anger at the federal government for prosecuting his mother based on what he felt were lies.

The print itself is in average condition and affixed to irregularly-sized card stock thinner than a typical CDV mount. We are only able to locate one other example of this view, making it quite possibly one of just a few extant.

Rare opportunity to acquire a piece of Lincoln-related photographic history.



[Lincoln Assassination, Civil War, Confederate, Early Photography, CDV] [Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, Tintype, CDV, Albumen, carte-de-visite, Salt print, Cabinet Card] [Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Abraham Lincoln, Abolition, Union, Confederate, Frederick Douglass, Robert E. Lee, Abolitionist, Slave, Slavery, 13th Amendment, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg, John Wilkes Booth]