Thus It Be Ever With Assassins

Mary Surratt

Looks like someone just splashed-out $100,000 to purchase four photos capturing the last moments and hanging deaths of the Lincoln conspirators. The shots which include Mary Surratt, the 1st woman executed by the U.S., are named “Arrival on Scaffold,” “Reading the Death Warrant,” “Adjusting the Ropes,” and “Thus It Be Ever With Assassins.” Taken by Scottish photographer Alexander Gardner in Washington DC on July 7, 1865, the prints were thought to fetch somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. They were sold by Swann Galleries, a New York City auction house.

No. 1“Arrival on Scaffold”

No.2 “Reading the Death Warrant”

No.3 “Adjusting the Ropes” 

No. 4 and “Thus It Be Ever With Assassins” 

For more about Mary Surratt, check-out:
History Bitches Fieldtrip #5: Mary Surratt's Boardinghouse and Mount Olivet Cemetery

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History Bitches Fieldtrip #5: Mary Surratt's Boardinghouse and Mount Olivet Cemetery

Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt, c. 1850

This Saturday, my friend George (of Bricktop podcast and Eater DC fame) and I drove out to Mount Olivet Cemetery; I wanted to photograph Mary Surratt’s grave. On July 7, 1865, Mary was bestowed the unlucky distinction of becoming the first woman executed by the U.S. government. She received this “honor” for her reputed participation in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln.

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