--- ---  # How a Photo Reveals an Early Encounter Between Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 13, 2015 2:30 PM UTC  'Living With Lincoln' 'Living With Lincoln'Kunhardt Family / Courtesy of HBO  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 13, 2015 2:30 PM UTC It was 150 years ago this week, on April 14, 1865, mere days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, that President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. The act put an end to the life of one of history’s most revered men. As shown in the exclusive clip above, a photograph from the time provides evidence for [a claim](http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/piwi03.html) that circulated in the days following the crime: that Booth was actually within firing range of the president during Lincoln’s second inauguration, about a month before the assassination actually took place. That proof of a near-miss is just one of the ways that photographs have illuminated Lincoln’s story. In the HBO documentary _Living With Lincoln_, from which this exclusive clip is taken, Peter Kunhardt explores his family’s history collecting Lincoln artifacts and photographs like this one—a hobby, obsession and calling that has come down through the generations for a century and a half. The Kunhardt family’s collection has contributed to the ways the world remembers Lincoln—their pictures include the portraits used to design the penny and the five-dollar bill—and also links the 16th President to, oddly enough, LIFE Magazine and the children’s book _Pat the Bunny_. _Living With Lincoln_ premieres on HBO on April 13. Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth: Photo Confirms An Encounter ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3772735/lincoln-photo-booth/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3772735/lincoln-photo-booth/"},"headline":"How a Photo Reveals an Early Encounter Between Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth","datePublished":"2015-04-13T14:30:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:44:03.219Z","description":"See a clip from the HBO documentary 'Living With Lincoln'","url":"https://time.com/3772735/lincoln-photo-booth/","keywords":["movies","Assassination","Documentary","Civil War","Presidents","Abraham Lincoln"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaaec6056d27e65e5/698786e7428a9e753bcc7fde/kunhardt-family-courtesy-of-hbo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaaec6056d27e65e5/698786e7428a9e753bcc7fde/kunhardt-family-courtesy-of-hbo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"'Living With Lincoln'","caption":"'Living With Lincoln'","creditText":"Kunhardt Family / Courtesy of HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3772735/lincoln-photo-booth/","name":"How a Photo Reveals an Early Encounter Between Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth"}}]}] ```