Possible photos of Lincoln's funeral procession found

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Maryland man finds possible photos of Lincoln's funeral procession
Published March 21, 2014
FoxNews.com
  • lincolnfuneral12.jpg

    This photograph is believed to show President Abraham Lincoln's catafalque moving past Grace Episcopal Church in New York on April 24 or 25, 1865, according to The Washington Post. (Mathew Brady/The National Archives)
A Maryland man says he's discovered lost photos of President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession in New York City in 1865.

The Washington Post reports that Paul Taylor, a retired federal government accountant, found the photos believed to show Lincoln's catafalque moving past Grace Episcopal Church on Broadway on an Archives Flickr photo-sharing website.

“I was just struck by the scene,” Taylor told the newspaper. “That is not your normal scene in front of church. There’s just people everywhere: the streets, the sidewalks, the roof. They’re in the trees. This is not your normal Sunday.”

The series of photos by famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady show a crowd waiting for, and then apparently to be paying homage before, a horse-drawn hearse. The photos were taken April 24 or 25, 1865, just days after Lincoln's assassination, The Post reported.

The photos appear to have been taken from an upper window of Brady's studio, which was across the street from the church. Taylor said he matched the church in the photographs to Grace Episcopal and e-mailed his findings to the Archives on March 3.

“I’m looking at it, and that was it,” he told The Post. “I had it.”
Experts at the Archives told the newspaper that while Taylor's theory sounds good, there may be other explanations and there is no way to prove it decisively.

“It’s a big deal,” said Richard Sloan, an expert on the Lincoln funeral ceremonies. “What makes it even a bigger deal is to be able to study the people. Even though you can’t see faces that well, just studying the people tells a story.”

A half-million people lined the procession route in New York, which was part of a two-week funeral tour that included stops in over a dozen major cities.http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/03/2...lincoln-funeral-procession/?intcmp=latestnews
 
If that is a tree in front of the cathedral door, unless it's a dead tree, it ought to be in full leaf for late April in NYC if it had been a normal spring.
Great observation! It may have been affected by abnormal weather. Do you think the absence of leaves may also depend on what kind of tree it was? Every spring we notice some trees leaf out much later than others. One particular young sycamore we know doesn't get its leaves until weeks after the surrounding oaks and hickories. The larger sycamores that reach above the rest of the canopy leaf out a bit earlier than this younger, smaller tree, but still later in the spring than the other surrounding native trees.
 
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As I looked more closely I observed other shrubs or small trees also bare of any foliage. Perhaps it was a late spring. Lee's troops did run into sleet when they abandoned Petersburg on their way to Appomattox in early April that year. Also sycamores, which do bloom late, were common in NYC. I believe a regiment of NY State militia in 1861 was given the name "Sycamores". However even if all the greenery was of sycamores and the whole month of April was cooler than average, there should be at least some foliage on those very bare branches for April 25 th. If those trees are anything else, like maples or oaks or elms they should be heavily leaved by that point. I would also be very cautious about that conclusion of Lincoln's funeral because there is no black funereal bunting on that church and the city was absolutely festooned with black bunting as part of the mourning process. By the way are we certain of the 4/25 date of the photo? Or the 4/25 date of the NYC funeral parade?
 
I did a bit more photo research for other cities on the funeral tour where we know for certain what the city was and the date. The date for NYC is 4/24 and 4/25. A photo of the procession in Cleveland, Ohio shows trees in partial bloom, though clearly nowhere near fully leaved and the date is 4/28. I presume a city on lake Erie would be a week behind NYC in greening up. There is another photo from NYC purportedly showing a young TR viewing the parade. The trees are in partial bloom. The photo of DC taken on 4/19 shows some trees only just starting to leaf. At a distance they could be construed as yet bare. A photo from Phila., 4/22 clearly shows trees in partial, maybe 50%, foliage. Again I would be very cautious at concluding that this image is of the Lincoln funeral. Keep in mind that the owner of this photo may have an interest in this property beyond the historical.
 
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800px-126th__St__Manhattan,_New_York,_6_April,_2011_-_Flickr_-_PhillipC.jpg
2007NewYorkApril27.jpg
As I looked more closely I observed other shrubs or small trees also bare of any foliage. Perhaps it was a late spring. Lee's troops did run into sleet when they abandoned Petersburg on their way to Appomattox in early April that year. Also sycamores, which do bloom late, were common in NYC. I believe a regiment of NY State militia in 1861 was given the name "Sycamores". However even if all the greenery was of sycamores and the whole month of April was cooler than average, there should be at least some foliage on those very bare branches for April 25 th. If those trees are anything else, like maples or oaks or elms they should be heavily leaved by that point. I would also be very cautious about that conclusion of Lincoln's funeral because there is no black funereal bunting on that church and the city was absolutely festooned with black bunting as part of the mourning process. By the way are we certain of the 4/25 date of the photo? Or the 4/25 date of the NYC funeral parade?



There is shrubbery in the bottom left that has bloomed. But here are some pics I found of New York in april.

So I don't think the trees had to be leaved as you say. The top pic is april 6th, the bottom is april 27, 2007.
 
Good use of pictures. By the way the tree on the left is a sycamore. You can tell by the bark. The flowering tree in the center may be a magnolia, an early bloomer. Tree on the right I have no idea. My daughter lives in Manhattan, upper West side right on the Hudson. Lots of trees. I visit about once a month and next month I will make it around 4/25. and take some photos. This winter, however, has been especially long and cold and as I write this the forecast calls for snow in a few hours (South Jersey). Perhaps the winter and spring of 1865 was like this year's and, as I said before, Lee's army retreating to Appomattox in early April did run into sleet that year. I don't think any weather records were kept at that time. Philadelphia was the first city that did keep daily stats (I think) but that was not until the 1870's. Anybody know what the weather was like in the Northeast that year?
 
Also sycamores, which do bloom late, were common in NYC. I believe a regiment of NY State militia in 1861 was given the name "Sycamores". However even if all the greenery was of sycamores and the whole month of April was cooler than average, there should be at least some foliage on those very bare branches for April 25 th.

Sycamore trees are typical May bloomers at NYC's latitude. This is a duplicate thread, that Andy Hall linked to the original (post #7) with a blow-up of the picture. It looks like a sycamore to me, based on what I can tell of the bark, the limb structure and its size - Grace Church was built in the early 1840's - if they'd planted a young sycamore out front, you'd have a tree about the size of the one in the photo in 1865.

I'm just back from there having spent Easter. The sycamore trees are not in bloom.

(Edit: Grace Church, Jeez Louise)
 
I will be in NYC tomorrow to check the foliage at 359 Broadway which is where Mathew Brady had his studio, which building is still at that address. Will report tomorrow.
 
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