On April 20, 1865, just five days after President Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre, the streets of Washington, D.C., were filled with more than grief and anger. Suddenly, the shocked public saw stark announcements nailed to posts, fences and walls. In bold black type, newly hung “Wanted” posters blared: “$100,000 REWARD”—the largest amount ever offered by the federal government for a fugitive.
Some posters featured woodcut-framed photographs of the three most wanted men in the world—Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators John Surratt and David Herold—atop a message that warned “THE MURDERER of our late beloved President Abraham Lincoln IS STILL AT LARGE.”
One of those rare posters is preserved at George Washington University, where second-year anthropology graduate student Isabella Quartiere, BA ’25, is bringing it back into focus.
A curatorial and exhibitions assistant at the Albert H. Small Center for National Capital Area Studies, where the wanted poster resides, Quartiere is flipping the pages of history by examining the little-researched artifact—its origins, its significance and what it tells us about how a fraught more than 160 years ago still enthralls scholars, history buffs and collectors.
“We have this amazing piece of American presidential history, and a lot of people don’t know it’s here,” said Quartiere, who earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. “I’m trying to bring this story to light—for the GW community, the D.C. community and historians in general.”
Printed by the War Department under Secretary Edwin Stanton, the posters—or broadsides—hung for just six days until Booth was shot by a Union soldier after being cornered in a Virginia tobacco barn. No one’s sure how many still exist—maybe 30 or 40. Some were torn to pieces by enraged mourning mobs. Others were never widely circulated before Booth’s swift capture.
But the broadside is among the most iconic artifacts connected to Lincoln’s assassination and a touchstone of “Lincolnalia” enthusiasts. It’s been covered by the History Channel and featured on the TV show Pawn Stars. Versions of the poster have sold for more than $200,000.
Quartiere scoured through academic articles and auction house receipts while researching the poster. She relied on both her anthropology and history backgrounds to understand how the broadside reflects the anguish and outrage of mid 19th-century Americans while also ushering in a cultural obsession with presidential memorabilia.
“Isabella’s astute detective work on the reward poster helps us better understand a tragic, chaotic moment for the capital city and the nation,” said Kasey Sease, curator of the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection. “Her research also spotlights a long history of collecting artifacts from President Lincoln’s life—which our museum is part of.”
“The Stain of Innocent Blood”
Albert H. Small, the philanthropist who assembled the Washingtoniana Collection and donated it to GW in 2011, purchased the wanted poster in the early 1990s. A native Washingtonian, Small was captivated by Lincoln’s story, Sease said. He added items to the museum’s collection that explored the former president’s time in Washington.
Originally, the posters were released in at least three different printings, each with subtle changes. The earliest contained only text. Fewer than five of those are known to exist today. The second version—like the Small poster—added photographs of the three conspirators. The next version warned that Booth may have shaved off the “heavy black moustache” in his photo, which might have been a publicity shot for his acting career.
All the versions feature a plea from War Secretary Stanton for the public’s aid in bringing Booth and his accomplices to justice. “Let the stain of innocent blood be removed from the land,” he wrote.
Herold, whose name is misspelled as “Harold” on the posters, was captured while hiding with Booth. He was sentenced to death by hanging. Surratt fled to Canada, then Europe and Egypt. His eventual extradition resulted in a mistrial, and he was released. Another conspirator, Surratt’s mother, Mary, was tried and hung‚ the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government.
But Quartiere found that scant scholarly research has focused on connecting the artifact to its impact on history. “You’d be surprised that there’s not much written about the broadside, specifically as far as the printings and their context,” she said. “I’m really excited to be pushing this research forward and trying to find out more about this wonderful object in our collection.”
Through months of meticulous “Scooby-Dooing,” as Quartiere calls her historical sleuthing, she followed the broadside’s paper trail to reveal how it was central to the largest manhunt in U.S. history and its aftermath.
“I want to understand the spark that ignited the field of presidential collecting and the drive to begin collecting presidential artifacts—especially the strange fascination people have with assassination or death-related items,” she explained.
Quartiere, whose anthropology degree includes a concentration in museum studies, is considering a career in curatorial work. Meanwhile, she’s still searching for clues to some of her unanswered broadside questions—from exactly how many were printed to where some of the missing posters ended up. In addition to writing a blog post on her work, she presented her research at a Small Center symposium and held a public talk at the Small Center to highlight the broadside and other “Lincolniana” artifacts in the museum’s collection. After the symposium, members of the Small family approached her to share that the wanted poster had been one of Albert Small’s most prized possessions—among his favorite artifacts in the entire collection.
“It is just extraordinary to be in its presence,” Quartiere said. “I know that sounds nerdy. But in terms of presidential history and artifact collecting in general, this is a big ticket item.”