National Archives photo mystery solved - 150-year old photos depict Lincoln funeral procession

Experts at the National Archives say it’s long been a mystery – what the photograph depicts, why it was photographed, and where it was shot. But a retired government accountant from Maryland, Paul Taylor, believes the scene was shot on Broadway, outside New York’s historic Grace Church, and that it was shot on Tuesday, April 25, 1864 – 11 days after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated inside Ford’s Theatre in Washington. According to Taylor, the crowd in the picture is waiting on a horse-drawn hearse in order to pay homage to the death of the late President during a 11-stop funeral procession that made its way around the country. If Taylor is correct, a long-standing mystery has been solved while providing another piece of rare historical documentation of the event.

National Archives photo mystery solved - 150-year old photos depict Lincoln funeral procession