The Last Moments of Abraham Lincoln

This 1865 hand-colored lithograph titled “The Last Moments of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States” reduces the number of men present at Lincoln’s death to a perhaps-symbolic twelve. They are identified as “Dennison, Halleck, Chase, Maj. Andrews, Stanton, Sur. Gen. Barnes, Peterson, Sumner, Welles, Robt. Lincoln, Speaker Colfax, and Maj. Gen. Meade.” Angels summon Lincoln to heaven, where George Washington waits to receive him. By linking the President to the divine, this image turns the depiction of Lincoln’s death from a picture of the event toward apotheosis.