WASHINGTON, D.C. - Every aspect of the nation's 16th president has seemingly been analyzed and rehashed in Illinois during the year of the bicentennial celebration of his birth.

Abraham Lincoln, regarded as perhaps the greatest president ever to lead the country, may also hold the title of most scrutinized.

In the nation's capitol, a new exhibit at the recently established Newseum examines not just Lincoln's life, but the drama and desperation that gripped the final days of the man who brought Lincoln's life to a tragic end.

"Manhunt: Chasing Lincoln's Killer" takes a look at the 12-day chase following Lincoln's assassination that ended in the death of John Wilkes Booth at the Garrett farm in Virginia.

The Newseum, the museum of modern news history at Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, a few blocks from Capitol Hill, focuses on that chaotic time in the country's history through the lens of the news coverage surrounding it.

Occupying a corner of the Newseum's sixth floor, the walls of the exhibit are covered with the headlines leading up to and following Lincoln's death and the subsequent hunt for Booth.

Cathy Trost, the exhibit's curator, pointed to a reproduction of the first news story detailing Lincoln's death. It was published 90 minutes after he was shot.

"Back in that time, that was warp speed," she said.

The unfolding of the news and how quickly and completely it broke across the country were things impossible even a few years prior to Lincoln's death, Trost said. Telegraphs were transforming the idea of how long people needed to wait for news, and photography was reshaping the way stories could be told.

Above the stories adorning the exhibit's walls hang stark black and white photographs of Booth and his conspirators. Many of the conspirators are shackled - the pictures surprisingly candid in a time when photography was much more formal and staged. One of the alleged conspirators, Mary Surratt, would be the first woman ever sentenced to death by the federal government.

In the center of the room, glass display cases preserve a number of artifacts that highlight the effect the assassination had on the national psyche at the time.

Among them, a flag pole that heralded Lincoln's body as it traveled back to Springfield to his tomb, and banners with his likeness that mourn his loss.

Sitting beneath another glass case sits a reproduction of a life mask of Lincoln. His face and hands are cast in bronze. Trost said his features were preserved that way prior to his presidency. She said she has seen another taken afterward - and it shows a lined face ravaged by the stress of responsibility.

Lincoln, who began his presidency maligned, had become a hero with the success of the Union in the Civil War, and his violent death cemented that in the mind of the nation.

It was an unreal situation, Trost said. Booth's fame as an actor was legendary for the time. The sad irony, she said, was that Booth, who demanded to see news accounts of his infamous crime, thought he would be called a national hero. Instead, he found he had only served to martyr Lincoln.

"Booth really thought he would be lionized," she said. "In the end, it was Lincoln who really became the hero."

Even today, Booth's mystique still captivates some. Fifteen-year-old Blanton Bazemore of Richmond, Va., perhaps summed it up best after looking on the grim photos of the other conspirators.

"They're all just conspirators," Bazemore said. "But Booth gets to say he was the assassin."

Perhaps the most telling advance in 1860s news gathering and distribution, Trost said, was that Booth was accounting for the effect the news would have on his ability to escape easily, as if he wanted to somehow outpace it.

"He was really trying to ride ahead of the news," she said.

The hunt for him was something that captured the nation's imagination, Trost said. On display is a reproduction of the famous wanted poster calling for the capture of Booth and two other conspirators. The price on Booth's head was $100,000. Various estimates put the present-day value at the bounty at or near $2.4 million. Two small children taking in the exhibit with their parents marveled out loud at the figure.

Trost said the exhibit has generated a lot of talk and a lot of what they call "linger time" among those who pass by it. It is a testament to one of the country's most well-known figures, and to the degree the tragedy of his death affected the nation.

The exhibit is available at the Newseum until Dec. 31.

klowe@herald-review.com|421-7985