Ford’s Theatre

Washington, D.C.

Working closely with the National Park Service, the Ford’s Theatre Society, and noted presidential historian Richard Norton Smith, Split Rock Studios developed a major new exhibition for Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Thematic environments, multimedia and low-tech interactives, and rich interpretive graphics create a space that transports visitors to the Washington of Lincoln’s time.

Visitors accompany Lincoln through his four years in the White House. The crumbling brick façade of Fort Sumter holds a video (created in collaboration with the History Channel) about the beginnings of the Civil War. A crowd of life-size sculptures, the job seekers, eagerly awaits the arrival of the president in a component about Lincoln’s Cabinet. Through the windows of the president’s office, visitors watch an object theater production that ties the flurry of paperwork on Lincoln’s desk with the activity outside his door. Cases hold artifacts of national importance, including the gun John Wilkes Booth used to shoot our 16th president.