President Abraham Lincoln's Autopsy

By: Michelle L. Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions

Even 17 years into my museum career, artifacts can still send shivers down my spine. Today’s post is about two documents that do just that every time I see them.

Today is the 145th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s death. The New York State Historical Association Research Library houses two autopsies of Lincoln, one by Surgeon Joseph Janvier Woodward and another by a Dr. R.K. Stone. (These are, more accurately, reports written shortly before the President died.) You can also see the tools the doctors used here. Most amazingly, Dr. Woodward’s autopsy is also smeared with the President’s blood. The transcripts are below.
Dr. Woodward’s report:

Autopsy of President Abraham Lincoln


April 15, 1865. 12 o’clock am


Eyelids and surrounding parts of the face greatly ecchymosed. Eyes somewhat protuberant from effusion of blood into the orbit. There was a gunshot wound of the head around which the skull was greatly thickened by hemorrhage into its tissue. The ball had entered through the occipital bone about an inch to the left of the median line and just above the lateral sinus which it opened; it then penetrated the dura mater, passed through the posterior lobe of the cerebrum, entered the left lateral ventricle and lodged in the white matter of the cerebrum just above the interior portion of the corpus strictum where it was found. The wound in the occipital bone was quite smooth and spherical in shape and beveled off from without inwards so that the opening of the tuble was larger than that through the external tubal. A fragment of the ball was found in the orifice through the bone. The track of the ball was full of clotted blood and contained several small fragments of bone. The brain around the track was pultaceus and livid from capillary hemorrhage into its substance. The ventricles of the brain were full of clotted blood. A thick clot beneath the dura mater coats the whole upper surface of the right lobe of the cerebrum. There was a smaller clot under the dura mater of the left side. But little blood was found at the base of the brain. Both the orbital plates of the frontal bone were fractured and the fragments pushed up towards the brain. The dura mater over these fractures was uninjured. The orbits gorged with blood…




Dr. Stone’s report:

Notes autopsy of Pres. Lincoln (Side 4)


Made Apr. 14th/65/Friday


Shot. 1 inch left median line traversing left lateral sinus upper edge, through occipital bone toward edge of lateral sinus. Thru occipital bone, touched ledge of lateral sinus, struck posterior lobe traversing it in a horizontal place (passing forwards inclining to the right.) In orifice of wound a scale blood 2 ½ in. in track, pieces of bone – 2 pieces of bone about 4 inches in advance in track of ball . Entered the left ventricle behind, followed the course of ventricle accurately, inching upwards and inwards, ploughing thru the upper part of thalamus nervorum opticorum, other 2 lodged in cerebral matter just above the corpus stratum of the left side. The brain track of ball was in a bubbly disintegrated state.


Both ventricles filled with blood. Whole brain engorged and bloody prints. More matter than wounds. On reviewing, the dura mater was displaced with a large coagulation of blood - lying upon the right hemisphere of the brain. Reviewing the dura mater, no wound in which was found, we found the orbital plates of both sides, the seat of comminuted fracture, the fragments being forced from within, outward. The orbit oculum palpitated membrane and cavity was filled with blood. Origin of which we didn’t seek. The right had been notably protruded, later sank back after death. Ecchymoses of the left eye 1st and right eye 2nd


Great oedema of sinus and a little blood extravasated about shot wound, clean cut as if by a punch. 2 feet off orbital plates, very thin.

Look for these incredible artifacts, as well as a document signed by Lincoln and his cabinet, in an upcoming Civil War exhibition planned for 2012 at Fenimore Art Museum.

NYSHA Library Catalog

By: Wayne Wright, Associate Director, NYSHA Library

The Library of the New York State Historical Association is chock full of materials on the history of our state. Since everything has a history, the collecting scope of the library’s materials is broad. The library contains materials on each period of the state’s history from the age of exploration to the present; its communities - cities, towns and villages; its families; its people. It has a good collection on its arts and crafts, its agriculture, its manufactures, its material culture, its songs, its religions – just about anything you can think of concerning New York’s history and culture. In the past, researchers came to the library knowing its reputation as a great collection of historical materials, confident that the library would have something for them.

In the last few years, there has been a major change at the library. No longer do researchers have to come hoping to find what they want. Now they can check the catalog in advance of their visit to find specific items of interest to them. The library’s catalog, Pathfinder, is on the Library’s website and can be searched from any computer with internet access. Pathfinder takes it name from a character in a James Fenimore Cooper novel and is appropriately named because it can be a researcher’s path to finding just what he’s looking for.

Go to the Library website which is a part of the New York State Historical Association’s website. Click on Pathfinder Online Catalog. A drop down box will appear in which you can choose to search the catalog by author, title or subject. By typing in an appropriate search term, a list of items keyed to that search term can be found. It could be an author’s name (last name – comma – first name, e.g. Jones, Louis C) to determine all books in the collection by a particular author. A title (e.g. Last of the Mohicans: leave off beginning articles “a,” “an,” or “the”) would show all editions of a book or all books with the same title. Typing in a subject (e.g. brooms) will either provide a list of items in the collection on that subject or a list of standard terms from which the exact subject heading can be chosen to come up with a list of items. After finding the bibliographic citation for an item, its call number can be determined. You can then make a visit to the library with the exact title and call number in hand. The library has five online public access computers available in the lobby area for you to consult during your visit as well.

Like most library catalogs, Pathfinder is a work in progress. New materials are being added daily. Not all of the manuscripts in the collection are currently in Pathfinder, but the existing card records are being added in electronic form all the time. The “Keyword” search capability does not work well at this time, so library users are encouraged to use the subject search until the bugs in keyword searching can be worked out.

Give Pathfinder a try on your own computer and then pay an on-ite visit with a list of call numbers. It will save your search time. Of course, library staff members are always willing to help customers find the resources they need.