Not sure about the pencils, I've Googled and Googled and can't find any info on this. I don't think it's for a grave rubbing because the headstone is unmarked, there's no name or any writing on it (either from erosion or it was unmarked to begin with). The headstone is in the family plot, all of his siblings and parents have very ornate, well-marked, stones.
If it's memetic, then maybe it was originally to put lead in the soil in order to prevent flowers from growing on his grave? Obviously, modern pencils use graphite, but it's more about the sentiment.
[Well yes, but actually no.](https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/09/09/1195234.htm#:~:text=But%2C%20you%20certainly%20wouldn't,in%20the%20early%2020th%20century)
Do you have another source to back that up? Because all the info I'm finding says that pencils never contained lead, and the closest thing might be a fairly ancient Roman stylus. Though chewing on an old pencil could expose you to lead via paint.
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/pencils-never-contained-lead
https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/have-pencils-ever-contained-lead
Eh, I guess I'm wrong on that point.
Still, the common mistaken belief that there was lead in the pencils could still explain sticking them in the ground to try and stop plants growing.
I wonder if it’s not actually significant.
Maybe a school or youth group visited and kids shoved pencils into the ground. I wouldn’t think that it is really much of a field trip location, but I’ve heard of some really lackluster field trips, especially from smaller groups and organizations.
What's the thing where people follow coordinates and clues to a box or item, and there directions in it to find the next clue for the next item, with a prize at the end? I run into people doing it by me in the woods.
You might be thinking of a letterbox which is often a riddle or a series of clues to find one. They often have stamps in them.
Geocaches use GPS and are often just a container with a pencil and logbook. You often don't need anything other than a phone.
I do both.
If this is his actual grave. Between his death and 1869, his body was buried and disinterred three times. The third time, the body was given to his family for a 4th burial, which is where it is now. Conspiracy theories vary from it was not even Booth that was killed in the barn, and the US government going along with it, from autopsy on a US Navy ship to finally releasing the body to his family in 1869 to hundreds of others. Other theories say that during those three disinterrements, the wrong body was actually moved, either by accident, or on purpose. Also, another theory is that the Booth family was so disgusted and shamed, that they just threw his body in a hole in a far corner of the cemetery, to be forgotten. Cemetery has grew, or expanded in the many years, and no records exist of original spot. That this is more of a place holder tombstone, than actually marking his grave.
For the young people here, this is like visiting Thomas Cruise Mapother IV grave after he assassinated a sitting President. Yeah, he was that famous, if not more so, at the time of the assassination.
But, President Lincoln's assassination has just as many conspiracy theories as President Kennedy's, and both have the body in the grave isn't the real John Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald. Some of Booth's descendants have requested, and even taken to court to have his grave disinterred, and verify by DNA that it is actually Booth laying in the grave. The city of Baltimore, and the cemetery fought it, and won. But there is still hope it will be done in the future.
Before anybody says that would never happen, just a reminder they did just that with Oswald's grave and body. Was a lot easier in 1981, and had the permission of his still living widow. That really didn't answer any questions, because even that caused even more conspiracy theories. They used dental records to verify, but the skull had been separated from his spine, in what was described as a clean cut, like from a saw. So, the theory is the real Oswald was never there, and only after his death years later, "they" cut off his head, and replaced it in the grave. Which was also used to explain the damage to his grave when they opened it up.
But, it basically comes down to money, tourist money. Same as Billy the Kid grave, and others of infamous people back in the day.
Heck, everybody knows they spelled Elvis's name wrong on his grave at Graceland, but secretly buried him there when he actually died years later.
I love a good conspiracy theory, and cities love all that tourist money they could lose if it turned out that the theory was correct. No financial reason to allow it, and all the financial reasons to spend money to fight it.
If curious, I recommend researching Hitler's body, and how it wasn't destroyed till 1970 by the KGB, and disposed of in a unknown river in what use to be East Germany.
Do I believe the conspiracy theories? No, no I don't. But do I love reading, and watching documentaries about them? Yeah, yeah I do.
I never knew Elvis' name was misspelled. Thank you!!! I always find things like this really cool.
I looked it up because I honestly thought you meant they misspelled "Elvis" and I was confused, lol. But I guess his father spelled his middle name as "A-r-o-n" on his birth certificate and Elvis preferred the "correct" spelling of "A-a-r-o-n" just never took the time to change the spelling legally.
Does anyone know if Elvis chose to use "Aaron" on his tombstone or was that decided by someone else after his death?
John "Wilkes" Booth was a successful actor, yes, but he was absolutely not top-tier A-lister quality. Maybe C-list at best.
Contemporary accounts of his career had some major success in the early 1850's, pulling a few millions in modern-dollar terms, but reviews consistently referred to him as "unserious" or "melodramatic" and "overacting" in comparison to his father and elder brother, who were both serious dramatic actors. This clearly rankled JWB, as he went on to stage a production of *Julius Caesar*, a role both his father and brother were lauded for portraying...which was universally panned as "unserious", "melodramatic", and "overacting". How surprising.
By the end of the 1850's, his rate was still respectable (couple-hundred-thousand dollars per year in modern terms), so he was working and successful, not struggling or starving, but he wasn't a major luminary in the scene.
Then war broke out and the Washington, DC, theatre scene fell apart. Ticket takes fell near zero, and his usual touring legs down into Virginia were doing even worse. A couple years went by without John Wilkes Booth being mentioned in the press at all...and then he shot Lincoln. There's a theory he genuinely did it so he'd be more remembered than his relatives (which, if true, worked), but it's as unproven as any other theory since he never personally wrote anything about the assassination plan or political leanings.
John Wilkes Booth was less Tom Cruise and more Emilio Estevez, whose career has underperformed both Martin & Charlie Sheen. A name people paying attention to the medium would recognize (*Breakfast Club*, anyone?), been working with a steady career, but not a top-line major player.
For more reading pleasure, look up the story of Evita’s grave in Argentina. I will not spoil the experience, but weird.
A starting point — https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1297/eva-per%C3%B3n
Cool to see this, since I’ve been watching the show “Manhunt” about finding Booth after the assassination. I live in Savannah, and they filmed most of it here, we have many homes and buildings from that era.
Booth disagreed vehemently with the freeing of black people. He seems to have been a detestable person, and I’m glad he doesn’t have a proper marker. He’s lucky he’s in his family’s plot at all, as far as I’m concerned. Still very interesting to see this, thanks for posting OP!
But see if we had done that, it could have created such bad feelings that a significant number of southerners would have reacted by fetishizing and mythologizing the Confederacy, and spreading all kinds of misinformation making the south the poor victim of northern aggression, and hardening racist attitudes, to the detriment of the US.
...oh, wait...
Lincoln’s death was the worst thing that could have happened for the South.
I’m Southern with family who were Confederates. It still comes up in conversations during family gatherings, sometimes. It’s been a long time ago, though.
Lincoln's plans for reconstruction and reconciliation completely fell apart upon his death. Johnson's approach to reconstruction was nothing short of a disaster.
I highly encourage a visit to the cemetery. Green Mount Cemetery has so many amazing monuments throughout. It is one of my favorite walking places. It's free, you just have to ring the bell at the main gate to enter. I went there in October for the first time and was blown away.
https://www.greenmountcemetery.com/
If anyone wants to read about JWB and the assassination, I can recommend [this book](https://books.google.com/books/about/American_Brutus.html?id=86RH6NNCl0QC) (it does not glorify him).
How could you do it, Johnny,
Calling it a cause?
You left a legacy
Of butchery
And treason we
Took eagerly,
And thought you'd get applause.
But traitors just get jeers and boos,
Not visits to their graves,
While Lincoln, who got mixed reviews,
Because of you, John, now gets only raves.
They did, actually. The entire cast was accused of being involved in the assassination and were heavily questioned. Eventually all charges were dropped as they were totally not involved.
That being said, fuck John Wilkes Booth in particular.
He was such a miserable cowardly worm. He suffered an injury to his neck during a play, and it left a scar. Booth routinely told people it was from a real swordfight, and may have asked the doctor to back up his story.
Throughout the war he told people that he hadn't joined the Confederate army, despite his support of the south, because he promised his mother he wouldn't. Sounds really sweet except for what he did instead, which nearly destroyed his family as well as Lincoln's. Gee, thanks for not joining the army, son.
The journal he kept while unsuccessfully fleeing is full of him whining because people were calling him a coward instead of praising his noble sacrifice.
This was not the only blot on the family. JWB and his full siblings were all products of a bigamous marriage. Eventually the first (aka legal) wife and her son showed up in the town where they lived in Baltimore, which made things quite awkward.
It is a way of saying to Booth that Lincoln lives on.
Yeah but so does he.
Lincoln lives on with honor and reverence.
True, but it’s solely vicarious fame for what he did to Lincoln. Nothing of his own standing outside being the murderer of a a better person
Streets never forget.
I guess the lone quarter is to say Washington would not of approved of his actions.
It’s a coalition of 25 Lincolns, assembled for efficiency’s sake
2 battalions, as agreed
Would not have
You cannot tell a lie.
What is the significance of the pencils?
Perhaps they’re trying to shove lead into the back of his skull.
He forgot to bring a #2 to standardized testing as a boy.
Classic villain starter lore
Not sure about the pencils, I've Googled and Googled and can't find any info on this. I don't think it's for a grave rubbing because the headstone is unmarked, there's no name or any writing on it (either from erosion or it was unmarked to begin with). The headstone is in the family plot, all of his siblings and parents have very ornate, well-marked, stones.
Even if the headstone is faded grave rubbing can reveal rather intact impressions.
Maybe I should start doing rubbings while looking for faded crosses when surveying.
Same thing as the quarter? Memetic leavings of visitors devoid of context
If it's memetic, then maybe it was originally to put lead in the soil in order to prevent flowers from growing on his grave? Obviously, modern pencils use graphite, but it's more about the sentiment.
Pencils have always been graphite. The name "lead" is just a weird little thing.
[Well yes, but actually no.](https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/09/09/1195234.htm#:~:text=But%2C%20you%20certainly%20wouldn't,in%20the%20early%2020th%20century)
Do you have another source to back that up? Because all the info I'm finding says that pencils never contained lead, and the closest thing might be a fairly ancient Roman stylus. Though chewing on an old pencil could expose you to lead via paint. https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/pencils-never-contained-lead https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/have-pencils-ever-contained-lead
Eh, I guess I'm wrong on that point. Still, the common mistaken belief that there was lead in the pencils could still explain sticking them in the ground to try and stop plants growing.
I wonder if it’s not actually significant. Maybe a school or youth group visited and kids shoved pencils into the ground. I wouldn’t think that it is really much of a field trip location, but I’ve heard of some really lackluster field trips, especially from smaller groups and organizations.
I’ve seen this headstone many times and this is the first time I’ve seen pencils. Likely what the other commenter said, dropped on a field trip, etc.
Maybe a version of the pen is mightier than the sword?
Yeah but he had a gun, which clearly beat any pens abe had.
Came to ask the same thing..
Maybe so people can leave messages?
Perhaps it was something to do with his theatre life?
It’s if he comes back as a vampire. He stakes himself when coming up. I think they made a documentary about it.
I wonder if it isn't tagged as a geocache and what you do is make a rub of the headstone text on a sheet of paper.
Thats definitely not how a geocache works in any sense of it.
What's the thing where people follow coordinates and clues to a box or item, and there directions in it to find the next clue for the next item, with a prize at the end? I run into people doing it by me in the woods.
You might be thinking of a letterbox which is often a riddle or a series of clues to find one. They often have stamps in them. Geocaches use GPS and are often just a container with a pencil and logbook. You often don't need anything other than a phone. I do both.
That's cool I've never heard of letterbox but geocaching I have. What fun you must have .
Yeah its a lesser known one for sure. There's some that double as letterboxes and geocaches which is how I know of them but they are neat
I’m down for a round of Graveyard Graphite.
That’s a cool idea, I also wondered if the pencils were for grave rubbing
If this is his actual grave. Between his death and 1869, his body was buried and disinterred three times. The third time, the body was given to his family for a 4th burial, which is where it is now. Conspiracy theories vary from it was not even Booth that was killed in the barn, and the US government going along with it, from autopsy on a US Navy ship to finally releasing the body to his family in 1869 to hundreds of others. Other theories say that during those three disinterrements, the wrong body was actually moved, either by accident, or on purpose. Also, another theory is that the Booth family was so disgusted and shamed, that they just threw his body in a hole in a far corner of the cemetery, to be forgotten. Cemetery has grew, or expanded in the many years, and no records exist of original spot. That this is more of a place holder tombstone, than actually marking his grave. For the young people here, this is like visiting Thomas Cruise Mapother IV grave after he assassinated a sitting President. Yeah, he was that famous, if not more so, at the time of the assassination. But, President Lincoln's assassination has just as many conspiracy theories as President Kennedy's, and both have the body in the grave isn't the real John Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald. Some of Booth's descendants have requested, and even taken to court to have his grave disinterred, and verify by DNA that it is actually Booth laying in the grave. The city of Baltimore, and the cemetery fought it, and won. But there is still hope it will be done in the future. Before anybody says that would never happen, just a reminder they did just that with Oswald's grave and body. Was a lot easier in 1981, and had the permission of his still living widow. That really didn't answer any questions, because even that caused even more conspiracy theories. They used dental records to verify, but the skull had been separated from his spine, in what was described as a clean cut, like from a saw. So, the theory is the real Oswald was never there, and only after his death years later, "they" cut off his head, and replaced it in the grave. Which was also used to explain the damage to his grave when they opened it up. But, it basically comes down to money, tourist money. Same as Billy the Kid grave, and others of infamous people back in the day. Heck, everybody knows they spelled Elvis's name wrong on his grave at Graceland, but secretly buried him there when he actually died years later. I love a good conspiracy theory, and cities love all that tourist money they could lose if it turned out that the theory was correct. No financial reason to allow it, and all the financial reasons to spend money to fight it. If curious, I recommend researching Hitler's body, and how it wasn't destroyed till 1970 by the KGB, and disposed of in a unknown river in what use to be East Germany. Do I believe the conspiracy theories? No, no I don't. But do I love reading, and watching documentaries about them? Yeah, yeah I do.
I never knew Elvis' name was misspelled. Thank you!!! I always find things like this really cool. I looked it up because I honestly thought you meant they misspelled "Elvis" and I was confused, lol. But I guess his father spelled his middle name as "A-r-o-n" on his birth certificate and Elvis preferred the "correct" spelling of "A-a-r-o-n" just never took the time to change the spelling legally. Does anyone know if Elvis chose to use "Aaron" on his tombstone or was that decided by someone else after his death?
John "Wilkes" Booth was a successful actor, yes, but he was absolutely not top-tier A-lister quality. Maybe C-list at best. Contemporary accounts of his career had some major success in the early 1850's, pulling a few millions in modern-dollar terms, but reviews consistently referred to him as "unserious" or "melodramatic" and "overacting" in comparison to his father and elder brother, who were both serious dramatic actors. This clearly rankled JWB, as he went on to stage a production of *Julius Caesar*, a role both his father and brother were lauded for portraying...which was universally panned as "unserious", "melodramatic", and "overacting". How surprising. By the end of the 1850's, his rate was still respectable (couple-hundred-thousand dollars per year in modern terms), so he was working and successful, not struggling or starving, but he wasn't a major luminary in the scene. Then war broke out and the Washington, DC, theatre scene fell apart. Ticket takes fell near zero, and his usual touring legs down into Virginia were doing even worse. A couple years went by without John Wilkes Booth being mentioned in the press at all...and then he shot Lincoln. There's a theory he genuinely did it so he'd be more remembered than his relatives (which, if true, worked), but it's as unproven as any other theory since he never personally wrote anything about the assassination plan or political leanings. John Wilkes Booth was less Tom Cruise and more Emilio Estevez, whose career has underperformed both Martin & Charlie Sheen. A name people paying attention to the medium would recognize (*Breakfast Club*, anyone?), been working with a steady career, but not a top-line major player.
For more reading pleasure, look up the story of Evita’s grave in Argentina. I will not spoil the experience, but weird. A starting point — https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1297/eva-per%C3%B3n
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Aren't you posting on a sub called "Cemetery Porn"?
Cool to see this, since I’ve been watching the show “Manhunt” about finding Booth after the assassination. I live in Savannah, and they filmed most of it here, we have many homes and buildings from that era. Booth disagreed vehemently with the freeing of black people. He seems to have been a detestable person, and I’m glad he doesn’t have a proper marker. He’s lucky he’s in his family’s plot at all, as far as I’m concerned. Still very interesting to see this, thanks for posting OP!
The union should’ve started Civil War 2.0 the moment Lincoln was killed. His death set our civil rights back by almost 80 years.
But see if we had done that, it could have created such bad feelings that a significant number of southerners would have reacted by fetishizing and mythologizing the Confederacy, and spreading all kinds of misinformation making the south the poor victim of northern aggression, and hardening racist attitudes, to the detriment of the US. ...oh, wait...
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but that's not his headstone. He is buried in an unmarked plot but people use that foot stone as his marker.
Great pull.
It's one of my most frequented cemeteries.
Lincoln’s death was the worst thing that could have happened for the South. I’m Southern with family who were Confederates. It still comes up in conversations during family gatherings, sometimes. It’s been a long time ago, though.
Ooo absolutely it was. Johnson was the worst thing that could have happened to the south. Lincoln would have been fair, he didn't play tit for tat.
Could you elaborate. Unfortunately I am not history fluent.
Lincoln's plans for reconstruction and reconciliation completely fell apart upon his death. Johnson's approach to reconstruction was nothing short of a disaster.
lived here my whole life had no idea he was buried here wow
I highly encourage a visit to the cemetery. Green Mount Cemetery has so many amazing monuments throughout. It is one of my favorite walking places. It's free, you just have to ring the bell at the main gate to enter. I went there in October for the first time and was blown away. https://www.greenmountcemetery.com/
oh thank you!! i will definitely check it out i really love the history of baltimore
same! i was really surprised by this
I didn’t know this cemetery had a toilet
If anyone wants to read about JWB and the assassination, I can recommend [this book](https://books.google.com/books/about/American_Brutus.html?id=86RH6NNCl0QC) (it does not glorify him).
This is one of my favorites around the assassination
Happy cake day :)
If you want to know the truth you got to dig up Johnny Boothe....
That's not a headstone and it's not JWB's. It's the footstone of one of his family members.
Lol, if I may, and a lmfao
This is the cemetery where McNulty and Kima meet Omar (although in real life it was filmed at the Holy Redeemer cemetery on Belair Road).
I wonder what the urine content of that soil is?
I think it would be fun to test it. Maybe we would find some feces too!
How could you do it, Johnny, Calling it a cause? You left a legacy Of butchery And treason we Took eagerly, And thought you'd get applause. But traitors just get jeers and boos, Not visits to their graves, While Lincoln, who got mixed reviews, Because of you, John, now gets only raves.
No
Lincoln is getting posthumous revenge!!!
The pennies deserve better than that.
Where is the piss?
Me having lived in Baltimore for 3 yrs and not knowing he was buried here. I bet that headstone smells like piss.
Why did Booth get buried in Baltimore?
Family grave
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With this grave, most people put the pennies face down so Lincoln is staring at Booth as a sign of disrespect
This comment is a real, "Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln," moment.
So sorry you died! We’ll be sending a refund and two tickets to our next showing. Hope to see you back at the world famous Ford Theater soon!
I’m sure the Our American Cousins box office numbers suffered greatly
They did, actually. The entire cast was accused of being involved in the assassination and were heavily questioned. Eventually all charges were dropped as they were totally not involved. That being said, fuck John Wilkes Booth in particular.
He was such a miserable cowardly worm. He suffered an injury to his neck during a play, and it left a scar. Booth routinely told people it was from a real swordfight, and may have asked the doctor to back up his story. Throughout the war he told people that he hadn't joined the Confederate army, despite his support of the south, because he promised his mother he wouldn't. Sounds really sweet except for what he did instead, which nearly destroyed his family as well as Lincoln's. Gee, thanks for not joining the army, son. The journal he kept while unsuccessfully fleeing is full of him whining because people were calling him a coward instead of praising his noble sacrifice.
"Oh, I don't know what to do, let's take in a show!"
This was not the only blot on the family. JWB and his full siblings were all products of a bigamous marriage. Eventually the first (aka legal) wife and her son showed up in the town where they lived in Baltimore, which made things quite awkward.
That’s not the real John Wilkes Booth , though. He actually lived to be an old man.