. >> this is c-span 3 where politics and public affairs programming throughout the week and american history tv. join in the conversation on these social media sites. when president lincoln was shot on april 14th, 1865, he was wearing a black coat made especially for his second inaugural by brooks brothers. the coat is cared for by the national park service and displayed in the ford's theater museum lobby. american history tv documented the process of removing a replica coat and placing the original on display for the public. learn how the artifact is preserved for future generations.

. >> as you can see, this is the box that holds the great coat. we are just about ready to put it in a special display case. we have a special storage area that we keep the great coat for half a year. we have it on display from

february to the summer. we have it this saturday the 12th and our busiest season, the spring season. that's also in april when the assassination anniversary comes around. the cherry blossom festival. it's the busiest season of the year and stays through the summer. stays just about six months and then we put it back into protective storage. >> when you great coat is not on exhibit, it is housed here. the coat is fragile and only goes on exhibit for a stretch of time. exhibit six months off and six months on so it can rest. the resting place figure the coast is out here at the resource center. we have a box for the coat so we can be at rest here and the coat

can be preserved longer. there is a variety in his collecting of objects associated with the assassination of lincoln. this particular object is in a case that was reported to have been played on the evening of the assassination in the play. in the sealed case, it has a humidifier controlled in the case itself. it's an environment within the environment. the facility itself has constant environmental controls. this is an environment within the environment. i see 1 that said presidential box. the funeral train. you don't necessarily have to open it, but i wondered. these are from that collection. >> right.

>> we store the material in acid-free boxes. these are ph-balanced paper performed from a company in virginia. you take off the lid and inside the box you see an inventory of objects in the box. you see that the artifacts have been individually wrapped. very stable material. the white is a tissue paper with a bubble wrap to preserve and protect the object. this is the acronym for the florida theater. if they were looking for a particular object, you can search through the number or the object name in the dita base. these are all -- these sets are associated with fort theater. at the fort ahead ator, we also

have a number of loans that are out right now. we have a loan in st. petersburg in russia. they are associated with a czar with the linkage that this czar is roughly the same time as lincoln. the russians wanted to create an exhibit that linked lincoln to their czar. >> so the great coat itself is in this larger box. however the condition the coat is in right now, the left sleeve is detached from it. the smaller box holds that sleeve. soon after the assassination, huh relic hunters and souvenir

hunter who is wanted pieces of it. the people were trying to cutoff tiny speess of it and the owner alfonso dunn was cutting off pieces himself and giving them to people so when the park service received it in 1968, it was already in unfortunately very, very delicate condition. we found this approach helps so that we can preserve it. that's our priority. preserve it for present and future generations. at the same time we want to get to see it and enjoy it and having it up so the maximum amount of people can do that. >> we are checking for particulates. >> what do you mean by particulates? >> dust. >> what we see there is our h

vac system that maintains proper humidity and temperature levels. this is self-contained in the display unit itself. our first step is to remove the reb likha. the original great coat is not in the case. we do have a replica coat and replica boots and top hat. we don't have the original coat and hat. we have the great coat itself. that's the most important item. the case. >> take one of these and go along the edges here. we are making sure the case has no particulates.

>> that's how we wrote it. >> where did that guy go? >> in first. this attaches to this. now you can see we are placing the mount in the display case. it is a specially-built mount and considering its condition with the detached shoulder.

we are removing the lid to the specially-made box and protective tissue paper lining. revealing the famous great coat. as you can see the left arm is detached from the coat. it is in a separate box. if you look closely there some small visible blood stains. from the night that lincoln was assassinated in this very theater in 1865.

it was a great coat, custom-made by the brooks brothers for lincoln's second inaugural in march 1865. silk lining. very special coat. lincoln loved this coat very much. he wore it various special occasions including his night out to the theater. as you can see we are treating this vote very, very delicately. very delicate condition.

we are placing the coat on this mount. >> how does this guy treat it? this gets it.

>> it is draping over. >> inside. >> yeah. we sure about this guy right here? >> that are shoulder is weak. it is still heavier than the other side. >> does it feel better up there? >> is there some way? >> this needs to go over it.

>> i'm just concerned it will pull it back. do you want to try it quickly? try to unhook this? >> i think it looks good. >> we cannot worry about this. the tissue paper.

>> i feel better because smith is in it. >> you can see the tissue from any angle? >> no. it looks good. it's all right. >> yes. . >> now you can see we are uncovering the second box. this is the that has the detached left sleeve. detached as a result of the many relic hunters from the late 1800s. this sleeve is on its own mount.

it is being placed separately in the display next to the great coat that it was once attached to. this is the way the park service received the sleeve and coat. in 1968. there is a silk stitching that was custom-made for lincoln and it's an eagle. in the eagle's mouth, there was a banner that says one country, one destiny. that is the infamous motto that guided our country through four

years. lincoln had that motto with him on his last night at ford's theater. in the past century as lincoln's legacy has grown as we have come to appreciate who this man was, this coat took on very special symbolism. part of that being the one country, one destiny logo. this is the logo that he lived with for four years and guided our country through war and had it with him on the night he was shot here. for that and many, many reasons it is a very, very special coat. that is why we have taken every single precaution to make sure we preserve it for present and future generations. >> do you see any fingerprints

or are we go? >> not on this side. let's get a happy shot. turn. got it. there we go. >> everybody say lincoln! >> lincoln! great. very good.

>> that was a nice idea. >> when visitors first enter our site, they walk in through these doors and the display case we just put the original great coat in is the first thing they see. there is a wall panel describeing it and they do have to go around. it is protected against the light. then once they get their tickets, they go down this ramp and they go into either the museum or the theater itself. we are heading downstairs to the museum which is where most visitors start their visit and their journey through lincoln's presidency. one of the first things they see before they get into the museum

is this replica life mask which we encourage them to touch. this is an interesting life mask made in 1860. just months before he was to start his first term as the 16th president of the united states and so we see a much younger, fresher looking lincoln. now we are entering the museum. it is in the basement of the theater itself. our museum does not just focus on lincoln's last day and last night. woo do seek to make sure that visitors know who lincoln was as a man. our museum going through the four years of his presidency and his time in the white house. it ends with the theater itself.

we are standing next to one of the most personality last artifact cases in the museum. this is the case that has the rest of the clothing that lincoln was wearing the night he was here. you can see there is a suit jacket that would have gone underneath the great coat. the pants and trousers and boots and a tie as well. these are not in as delicate condition as the great coat which can only be on display a few months out of the year. fortunately relic hunters did not seem to want small pieces of the rest of the suit as much as they did the great coat and that's why the suit is in much better condition and because of that we can have it on display

more than we can the great coat. we can also see there is one spot of blood on the knees of the trousers because after lincoln was shot, his body did slump forward. that is why there is blood there. that pillow is one of several pillows in the peterson house where lincoln died nine hours after being shot here. he was brought to the house and died there at 7:22 the next morning. there were a few pillows under his head. this is one of them. we have others. not all of them are in such good condition so we have it here for people to see the blood stains. lincoln came to the theater that night in a celebratory mood. general lee surrendered to

general grant that week. one of the most important military victories in the war. the entire city was celebrating and lincoln also was celebrating very important victory and came here to ford's theater to see the performance of our american cousin and loved the theater very much. had been here about 12 times in the previous year. we are standing in the theater itself where lincoln was shot the night he was here on april 14th, 1865. cross from me and behind me is the box itself. the presidential box decorated specifically for lincoln's visit that night with the flags. the original portrait of george washington. lincoln got here around 8:30 for the play. the play begun about 30 minutes

before and we know that lincoln was a very humble, modest man. he really just wanted to sneak in here and go unnoticed. just go in and sit down and watch the play. unfortunately for him the moment that he arrived there was a famous actress on stage. she noticed him sneaking by and she stopped the play and instructed the orchestra to play hail to the chief. everybody in the theater between 1700 and 2500 people all stood up and gave the president a standing ovation. people were cheering and they were very, very excited and happy to see their president who had just helped them win this big victory in the civil war.

many finally go in and sit down and enjoy the rest of the play until of course the tragic moment that he was shot. about two hours after he came in. all the clothing items went with lincoln to the peterson house where he was brought to live out his final hours. after lincoln was taken from the house, his body was removed back to the white house. those items stayed there and they were returned to mrs. lincoln and mrs. lincoln is then the who gave that great coat to alfonso dunn who was a favorite door keeper or kind of usher. he kept it for many years. he kept it in his family for over two generations and he had many offers to have that coat bought from him.

he had an offer from pt barnam and refused the offers and that coat was in his family's hands until it came to the national park service in 1968. since 1968, ford's theater national historic site has been run through a very special public-private partnership. the public part is the national park service and the private is ford's theater society. that is since 1968 that we have run this site together. we run it both as a national historic site where we have thousands of visitors come in and we interpret the events that happen here. at the same time this is still an active working theater. in that way we get to preserve lincoln's memory and it is a living memorial that pays tribute to his love of the

performing arts. that is the way the theater still is oeds and we are very proud of that partnership. we are about to open boxes of two items that will number our center for education and learning that is going to be opened up in february 2012 across the street from the theater. these are two items in our collection that are not in the museum. they are going to open a tassel that was part of the fault that surrounded lincoln's casket when he was in the public viewing the days after the assassination. we keep these in protective storage in our museum and resources center. then also we have the tools used

to seal the casket 13 days after the body left washington, d.c. and arrived in springfield, illinois where he would finally be buried on may 4th, 1865. these are the items used to seal the casket. on may 4th, 1865, original from 19th century created by ss elder, the person who helped seal the casket. here we see a state officer's pass that you needed to get access to the casket itself. the cools are used to sodder the casket shut. the iron tools with wooden handles. we can see the tools are in a tin frame case that elder created. he could display it and likely

he was very proud of his work. this would have been a very important task for him to seal that famous casket shut. the peterson house is a part of our site. it is currently under renovation and will not be open until late spring because next door to it, we are currently constructing a center for education and leadership that will be open in february of 2012 that will continue some of the exhibits from the museum and help the public learn more about president lincoln, not just his assassination and his death here, but also his life which is also very important for us to understand who abraham lincoln was as a person. >> you can learn more about

ford's treater and take a tour of the facilities at fordstheater.org. visit the c-span video library and search for american artifacts. . >> you are watching american history tv. 48 hours of people and events that help document the american story. all weekend on c-span 3. >> the presidential library. the following discussion his relationship with the press and the dynamics of the 1960 presidential election. this program is san hour. >> my name is scott spitzer and this is our panel o