3-071-112 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Remains of President Garfield lying in state in the Capitol, Washington, 1881. 'In the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, on Thursday and Friday, the 22nd and 23rd September, the body of James Abram Garfield, the murdered President of the United States, lay in its opened casket, an object of mournful veneration, seen by a hundred and thirty thousand visitors before Thursday evening, when the casket was closed. The late President's lifeless form was dressed in the clothes that he wore on March 4 at the public inauguration of his Presidency in front of the Capitol. Only the face and shoulders were exposed to view. The left hand was placed across the breast, in an attitude which was habitual to him during his life. The casket or coffin was black, with silver handles, and was lined with white satin; at the upper end were two long palm-leaves, laid so as to cross each other. On the coffin lid, when closed, was a silver plate, inscribed "James Abram Garfield, born Nov. 19, 1831; died President of the United States, Sept. 19, 1881." Mrs. Garfield was the last person to look on the face of her husband, sadly wasted and disfigured as it was by above three months of terrible suffering'. Garfield was shot by Charles Julius Guiteau. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.