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.

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!

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.

Questions abound about which knife John Wilkes Booth used to stab Major Henry Rathbone after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Read on to see what evidence exists in the curatorial files and what our conclusion is.

Throughout history many Americans have used oratory as a way to drive civic change. Read on to discover 10 change-makers whom you might not know about yet.

When John Wilkes Booth was captured, a photo of Lucy Hale was found on his person. But it turns out, that Lucy Hale had captured more hearts in Washington than Booth’s!

One of the most commonly asked questions we hear is, “Why is there a portrait of George Washington decorating the Presidential Box?” Read on to find out more!

In our modern political climate, how should a program about Reconstruction and Civil War Memory adapt to meet the needs of teachers and museum educators? Explore what we've learned by running The Seat of War and Peace, a Ford’s Theatre summer program for teachers.

In 1956, Samuel J. Seymour appeared on the hit T.V. show “I’ve Got A Secret,” claiming to be the last living witness to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. But, how true is his story?