As most readers of this blog know, I have a deep interest in the Garrett family of Caroline County. It seems that everyone who studies the Lincoln assassination finds a specific facet of it that appeals to them more than others. For me, that facet is the Garretts. In March of this year, I presented at the Surratt Society’s annual conference about my ongoing research into the Garrett family. I’ve come into contact with many Garrett descendants and a few have even bestowed upon me the title of “honorary Garrett”, much to my delight. It’s hard to explain why I’m so caught up with this family and their interaction with John Wilkes Booth, but I am.
At the Surratt Conference, I went through a slideshow of pictures that I found of the Garrett house. It showed the house from its days as the family’s home, to its subsequent collapse around 1937/38. As of this posting, I have accumulated 34 pictures of the Garrett house. Some pictures are well known and seen in books on the assassination. Others have come from universities, libraries, and private collections. Since that presentation, I have been asked by a few people to put the pictures up here on my site. I have been hesitant to do so, but today I am making a compromise.
In the Garrett House Gallery I have just made, I am displaying half of the pictures I have. Additionally, I’ve done something I haven’t done before in my other galleries, and I’ve watermarked each image. I’ve done this because I am working on a book about the Garretts and their run in with John Wilkes Booth and, while I love sharing new information and images here on BoothieBarn, I also want to protect these images in case I want to use them in my later publication. That is also the reason why I have also failed to source where the different images came from. Until I either use them, or fail to use them, in my future book, I want to keep their origins a mystery. I hope you all understand. I am doing this all to protect this Garrett project of mine as it means a great deal to me.
Now, without further ado, click HERE or on the picture above to visit the new Garrett House Picture Gallery.
Dave, I will sure look forward to your book! Best of luck on your endeavor.
Thank you, Roger. I’m still researching but I really want to make the book a reality. I’m currently hunting down my “holy grail”: pictures of Jack and Will Garrett.
Thank you for generously sharing some of your treasure with us! I too look forward to the book.
Thanks a bunch for the kind words, Richard.
thanx, Dave, for showing half of your Garrett pics. For some reason, the 3 on the top right disappear before I can even click on them to enlarge them. It happ’d repeatedly. Oh, well. Like you, I have this “thing” for pics of the Garrett house. There’s a mystique about it that none of the other JWB.E.R. sites have. I guess it’s ’cause where JWB died and went to _____??????. I can’t wait for your book. Your reasons for taking the precautions you are taking, and why you have been hesitatnt to show them on your site are understandable and quite acceptable. Anyone who disagrees just doesn’t understand how a project one works hard on can become so personal. I am that way about Jeannie Gourlay and Wm. Withers.
This is the first I am hearing about your book. I cannot wait to read it!
Well I’ll have to write it first, Rich. I’m still in the researching phase now.
Looking forward to the book. Good luck writing it..
Eagerly looking forward to your book, Dave! I’m delighted that you’re working on one — and your research is impeccable and facinating. Have at it!
The photograph collection is wonderful – and fascinatingly creepy, watching that old house collapse in on itself….
Dave,
Jack and Willie just returned from CSA duty. Do you know in what unit they were enlisted? Looking forward to your upcoming book. If it is as good as your outstanding blog it will be a bestseller. Sure of that!
Kees