Euphoria and relief engulfed Washington City following Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to United States General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. When Lee signed the surrender documents, the immediate threat to Washington was over. The Civil War officially ended just over a month later. The mood this struck must have been similar to when sports fans watched Nationals’s second basemen, Howie Kendrick, hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning of Game 7 of the 2019 World Series to put the Nationals ahead for good. The game wasn’t officially over, but victory was soon to come. It was time to party.

In writing A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens imagined a story that folks could return to again and again. He thought he could easily achieve this if he had the novel illustrated. For the task, Dickens chose John Leech, a caricaturist and illustrator known for his humor and satirical bent.

This holiday season, Ford’s Theatre presents A Christmas Carol from November 21, 2019, to January 1, 2020. We recently spoke with actor Stephen F. Schmidt who portrays the Ghost of Jacob Marley in this year’s production.

"I read Fences in 1987 and was so moved by its portrait of the deeply troubled Troy Maxson that, as soon as I had turned the last page, I vowed to read everything I could get my hands on that was written by August Wilson.”  Thus began Dr. Sandra Shannon's more than 30-year career as a leading scholar of his life and work. 

Since our History on Foot tours began in 2008, more than 28,500 patrons have patrolled the streets of downtown D.C. as deputies with Detective James A. McDevitt as their guide. In September 2019, our tour celebrated 1,000 performances!

August Wilson’s Century Cycle is a towering achievement of 10 plays documenting the hopes and struggles of African Americans. With increasing popularity in the last 10 years, Fences has become an American classic, dedicated to unearthing the lives, hopes, dreams and struggles of African Americans.

On April 16, 2019, Ford’s Theatre and Wikimedia DC hosted a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon. The theme for this event was “diversifying the Lincoln Assassination story.”

As the Ford’s Theatre Teacher-in-Residence for four weeks this summer, Karen Richey researched contemporary speeches from a wide range of human experiences and cultures. Discover new resources that students can use to make connections between the past and present and see take part in civic dialogue.

A new interactive museum feature will let visitors learn about the Lincoln assassination through the eyes of four real people who lived through it.

Ford’s Theatre Society and the National Park Service worked together to create an interpretive plan, defining how we interpret history at Ford’s Theatre. Read on to learn how the interpretive plan came about and what it includes.