Make Plans to Visit Tudor Hall in 2025

 

 

The historic Tudor Hall is a fascinating piece of our nation's history. When you visit, you'll connect to the story of the Maryland Booths who left their mark on America forever. You'll walk where they walked, lived, played, worked and dreamed. When you visit, this part of history comes alive.

The property and first floor of Tudor Hall will be open to visitors for tours and talks in 2025 at 1:00 & 2:00 PM on the dates listed below. This year all general tours will be at 1:00 PM. The special talks will be at 2:00 PM.

April 6 & 27; May 4 & 18; June 1 & 15 & 29; July 15 & 27; August 10 & 24; September 7 & 21; October 5 & 19; November 9

Tudor Hall is located at:
17 Tudor Lane,  Bel Air, MD 21015
The cost of each Special Talk and each regular tour is $5.00 cash for those age 13 and older.
For more information:
443-619-0008 or SpiritsOfTudorHall@gmail.com  

The following are the special talks at 2 PM: 

 

April 6

The Tragedy of Loving Booth. The Sad Lives of Two Women Romantically Attached to John Wilkes Booth

by Jim Garrett

 

April 27 & October 5

Lincoln’s Final Hours

by Kathryn Canavan

 

May 4

Artifacts of John Wilkes Booth and Abraham Lincoln From the Night of the Assassination

by Jim Garrett

 

May 18 & July 27

Asia Booth Clarke, Sister to John Wilkes Booth, A Woman of the Civil War

by Lisa

 

June 1

Full Immersion History: Finding New Angles in an Old Story

by Michael Kauffman

 

June 15

Patriarchal Patriot: the Revolutionary Richard Booth, the Father of Junius and Grandfather of John Wilkes

by Kate Jones     

 

June 29

The Mistresses of Tudor Hall and Their Memories of the Booths

by Jill Redding

 

July 13

Shakespearean Daughter: the Life and Loves of Edwina Booth

by  Kate Jones

 

August 10

Get to know Junius Jr.: Son of the great tragedian Junius Brtutus Booth

by Jim Garrett

 

August 24

Joseph, the Unknown Booth, the Younger Brother of John Wilkes Booth

by Jim Garrett

 

September 7

April 14, 1865

by Terry Alford

 

September 21

“But Daddy I Love Him” - Animals and Pets of the Booth Family

by Kate Jones

 

 October 19

“First Daughter” A New Look at Rosalie Booth

by Kate Jones

 

November 9

John Wilkes Booth: Two days to Destiny

by Jim Garrett

Below are the speakers for 2025:

Terry Alford is an author, historian, and Professor Emeritus at Northern Virginia Community College. He received a Ph.D. in history from Mississippi State University and did post-doctoral work in family history at the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Alford is a founding board member of the Abraham Lincoln Institute of Washington, D.C., and is an internationally recognized authority on John Wilkes Booth and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Alford makes frequent appearances on television programs and networks such as “20/20,” ABC News, the History Channel, the Discovery Network, the Smithsonian Channel, CSPAN, BBC, and PBS. Fortune’s Fool, Dr. Alford’s biography of Booth, was published in 2015 by Oxford University Press and has received exceptional reviews. His research endeavors have been supported by four grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has been an historical consultant on a number of films and documentaries, most recently Stephen Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Council for Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC.      

In 2010, Dr. Alford received the Outstanding Faculty of Virginia Award from the State Council on Higher Education. This is the highest teaching honor given to college and university faculty in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Kathryn Canavan is an independent researcher and the author of Lincoln’s Final Hours: Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America’s Greatest President. She started her journalism career as a crime reporter. She eventually worked as reporter or editor in four states and was a National Health Journalism Fellow at USC’s Annenberg School. To get a story, Canavan has reported at gunpoint, lived with the Moonies, negotiated with a killer and joined Tug McGraw in the Phillies dugout.      

She began researching the unintended consequences of the Lincoln assassination in 2009. Lincoln's Final Hours has been featured on CSPAN and PBS Newsworks. She explores the effect that one extraordinary night had on the ordinary Washingtonians who witnessed what happened inside Petersen's Boarding House on the night President Lincoln died there. Their eyewitness accounts provide telling new details about the assassination. Some went on to lead lives that are the stuff of novels, and others came to sad ends.

Jim Garrett gets to do what he loves . . . History. He is a lifelong student of history and for the last 10 years plus has shared his love of history with people from around the world. For his entire life, he has been an ardent student of American History concentrating on the Civil War era and the Lincoln Assassination. Beginning in the early 2000's, he was a volunteer at Ford's Theatre, lectured at conferences, including the Department of the Interior, been on radio and co-authored two books and written numerous articles. Now semi-retired, he spends his time with Unscripted Tours of Washington, which is rated the top tour company in Washington by Viatour, the parent company of Tripadvisor. Unscripted Tours is also listed in the top 20 tours in the nation by Viatour as well.

Kate Jones is a 19th century murder researcher, speaker, and living historian who specializes in the Lincoln assassination, the Lizzie Borden murders, and the case of the "Devil in the White City" multi-murderer, Dr. H. H. Holmes.

 She has presented on different aspects of the Lincoln assassination for several organizations including the Surratt Society and Fort Lesley J. McNair. Kate also speaks about the events of 1865 through her work at the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum and Historic Port Tobacco Village.  

Michael Kauffman: Author Jonathan Yardley once wrote in the Washington Post Book World that Michael W. Kauffman "has been studying Lincoln generally and the assassination specifically for 40 years, and he appears to know the subject better than anyone else now alive."

Combing through archives all over the U. S., Canada, and the U. K., Kauffman uncovered a staggering number of previously unknown sources to produce American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies (Random House, 2004), which historian David Herbert Donald called "by all means the best" work on the Lincoln assassination. The Wall Street Journal named it one of the five best books ever published on political violence, and Civil War Interactive placed it high on their list of the Most Important Civil War books ever published.

Kauffman had long been a fixture in Civil War studies, with contributions that appeared in Civil War Times, the Washington Post, American Heritage, Blue and Gray, and dozens of other publications. He has lectured throughout the United States and the U. K., and has appeared in documentaries on A&E, The Learning Channel, the History Channel, National Geographic, Discovery, and Travel Channels.

American Brutus was his first major book, and it appeared in the Best Books lists of nearly every major media outlet in the United States. It was optioned for a 9-part miniseries on HBO.

Jill Redding has been on stage for over 70 years beginning in the early 50’s. She has appeared in 40+ movies as a background performer and has been a member of the Screen Actors Guild for over 30 years. Jill honed her acting skills by appearing in local community theaters. In the last 30+ years she has worked with a troupe of actors playing over 30 characters in improvisation style comedy. Some of her credits include: the feisty outspoken bartender at the longshoreman’s bar in the second season of The Wire; the game changer in the movie Game Change, and as a surly book buyer on Veep.

She discovered Tudor Hall in 1978 and served as Vice President of The Preservation Association for Tudor Hall. She wrote, produced, and directed Murder Mysteries for 4 years to raise funds to keep Tudor Hall open to the public during the 1990’s and is currently Vice President of the Junius B. Booth Society.

 Lisa Samia is an award winning Poet & Author who loves American Civil War History. Her latest accomplishments are being selected as the National Parks Arts Foundation's Artist in Residence for Gettysburg National Battlefield Park & National Parks Service Artist in Residence for Manassas National Battlefield Park, both for poetry.

She has presented her poetry at the American Civil War Museum, Richmond and Appomattox, Manassas National Military Park, The Gettysburg Civil War Round Table, The Seminary Ridge Museum, the Gettysburg Heritage Museum, the New England Civil War Museum, and more.

 Lisa is also an avid author and speaker on John Wilkes Booth and his sister Asia Booth Clarke. She has appeared multiple times at Tudor Hall in Bel Air, MD (Booth Family Home) and at the Civil War Round Table Congress (via Zoom) to a sold-out audience. Her recent endeavor is researching and writing a biography of the life of Asia Booth Clarke, Sister to John Wilkes Booth, A Woman of the Civil War.

 

Plan to visit Tudor Hall for each of the exciting educational special talks in addition to taking the regular tours.

 

 

 

 

 

Become a Member of The Junius B. Booth Society

 

The Junius B. Booth Society (a 501c3 non-profit organization) hopes you will consider making a donation to the Tudor Hall Museum. 

As a non-profit, we rely on our tours and special talks to sustain our mission to keep this important part of our American history alive. The story of the Maryland Booths and Tudor Hall is a fascinating piece of our nation's history and the Junius B. Booth Society has an active part in keeping this chapter of history alive. The Society was incorporated in Maryland in 2006 to educate the public and historians in the history of the Booth family and Tudor Hall, and developed and maintains the tour guide program at Tudor Hall in order to open the house for public tours on a regular basis.

If you are interested in this part of our history and help support Tudor Hall, become a member of the Junius B. Booth Society. When you join the JBBS, not only do you receive our newsletter, but you support the education of the public in: the theatrical arts; the Booth family history; the story of Tudor Hall; other Booth family historical sites located in Harford County; the history of owners, slaves, farmers, craftsmen and others connected to the Tudor Hall farm; Booth related literary works. The Society also supports the restoration and preservation of Tudor Hall and other Booth related buildings located in Harford County, MD.  

Join us in this exciting endeavor and help keep history alive. Download our membership application, fill out and mail back along with a check to:

Junius B. Booth Society
2223 Kentucky Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21213
Attn: Membership Committee

For more information call 443-619-0008 or SpiritsOfTudorHall@gmail.com

Thank you for your generosity and support for the Tudor Hall museum.

Junius Brutus Booth Rescued From a Watery Grave

by Tom Fink

From time to time Junius Brutus Booth displayed signs of brief insanity. At such times those close to him tried to help him. The Charleston Courier for March 12, 1838 reported one of these incidents:

     “Mr. Booth went on board the…packet, in a company with his friend, Mr. Flynn, the well-known Comedian, on Wednesday evening last [7 March], and on the passage showed evident symptoms of insanity, but being carefully watched by his anxious friend, had no opportunity of escaping his vigilant eye, and appeared to improve gradually under Mr. Flynn’s friendly care, until the afternoon of Friday last when 36 miles N.E. of Frying Pan Shoals, during dinner, when Mr. Booth excused himself from the table, took advantage of his friend’s absence, and lowered himself from the promenade deck, which attracted the attention of the men. Capt. Pennoyer, Mr. Flynn, and the rest of the passengers being called from dinner, endeavored to persuade him to return on board, when he not only refused, but immediately plunged into the ocean. Capt. Pennoyer instantly stopped the boat, which was then going at the rate of eleven miles an hour, and by his prompt exertions and presence of mind, a safety buoy was thrown over, and a safety boat immediately launched. The gallant Captain took the helm, and Mr. Booth, though then half a mile from the boat, was rescued from a watery grave.”

     Junius had asked Mr. Flynn to alert him when they approached the area where William Augustus Conway, a failed tragedian, had drowned himself. William Conway came to America in 1823 from England and had been a favorite actor at the Covent Garden Theatre in London. Because of the extremely fast popularity he gained in London, some of his jealous professional contemporaries ridiculed him publicly and conspired to drive him from his position on the stage. Because of his sensitive nature he chose to pursue his profession in America. In 1826, William decided to quit the stage and study Divinity. After three years he met with some personal opposition from the then Bishop of New York “from the fact of his having been an actor.”  During his voyage to Savannah to visit Bishop White “to take orders in the church,” Conway suddenly had a fit of despondency and jumped from the deck of the ship and drowned himself.

     When Junius reached the spot where Conway had drowned, he jumped overboard with a “message” for Conway. As Flynn pulled Junius into the safety boat, Booth warned, “I say Tom, look out: you’re a heavy man, be steady; if the boat upsets we’ll all be drowned.”

Was the Booth Farm Used to Help Runaway Slaves?

By Tom Fink

President, Junius B. Booth Society

While visiting with Elwin Penski (founder of the Junius B. Booth Society) one afternoon, he mentioned to me that he believed Richard Booth, the father of Junius Brutus Booth, had assisted escaped slaves when he resided at the Booth farm in Bel Air, MD, though he couldn’t recall a source to back up his belief. His statement piqued my curiosity and I immediately decided to investigate that claim. Not only could this change the way the general public perceives the Booth family, but it could possibly shine a new light on the history of the Booth farm.

     To make a long story short, while I was in correspondence with Dr. Terry Alford, a history professor at Northern Virginia Community College and a Booth historian (his biography of John Wilkes Booth will soon go to print) he directed me to a manuscript written by John T. Ford (who built and owned the theatres named after him in Baltimore and Washington) housed at the Maryland Historical Society.

     I followed his lead and found the manuscript located in the John T. Ford Manuscript Collection, MS 371, Maryland Historical Society. In a folder titled FORD MANUSCRIPTS: The Booth Family, there is a penned letter he wrote to the Editors of the Gazette. Whether he sent this letter or not, I do not know; however— it is a goldmine.

     The following is an excerpt from Ford’s manuscript just as he wrote it, including the words he crossed out with a single line:

“Editors of the Gazette

Gentlemen,

In the report of the “Surratt trial” published in yr paper on Thursday I notice a gross inaccuracy that I presume was the fault of the Reporter rather than the mistake of the eloquent counsel for the defense (Mr. Bradley).  I will correct the statement as briefly as I can by saying that it was the Grandfather Richard Booth not J.B. Booth Sr. that allowed the Red Republicanism of which he was so fully imbued to in   was a thorough Red-Republican.  He lived in its day and was himself an ardent admirer of “John Wilkes” of the North Briton.  He came to this country and state an old man and settled in Harford County with his son. He was an extremely brilliant but very erratic man and commenced here practically to develop his ideas of right in that direction by aiding slaves servants to escape into Pennsylvania.  His evident sincerity in the cause of human rights, his unbalanced mind and the popularity of his son together saved him on several occasions from prosecution although the son (J.B.B. Sr.) did on more than one occasion pay for the a escaped runaway.”

John T. Ford was well acquainted with the Booths. Junius, Edwin, and John performed at his theatres and he had a working relationship with them, and no doubt a personal relationship as well. Though John’s manuscript is not dated, it was obviously written at the time of the Surratt trial, so the events of the assassination and his relationship with the Booths would be fresh in his mind. I believe John Ford is a solid, credible source and to be believed.

     Richard Booth moved to America in 1822 and resided with his son Junius. When Junius obtained the Harford County land for his farm in 1824 and moved a log house to the property, his father, Richard, remained with his son and lived at the Booth farm till shortly before his death in 1839. This leaves at least a 15 year time frame for Richard to help slaves to escape to Pennsylvania. The Booth farm was basically isolated and is located along a route that led to Pennsylvania. The farm was mostly wooded and fairly large, 177 acres by 1825 (see note) and would provide sufficient cover to shelter runaway slaves during their exodus to Pennsylvania.

     During the years Richard resided at the farm, it was extremely dangerous to assist escaped slaves—in fact it was criminal. Richard and Junius risked everything by helping them. Obviously, because of the danger in being discovered, they would not have told anyone what they were doing, unless they had absolute trust in whom they confided. Likewise, the slaves would not have revealed who their benefactors were for the same reason.

     By the time John Ford wrote this manuscript, Richard and Junius were no longer living; the Civil War had ended; the thirteenth amendment was in place, and more than twenty-five years had passed since they aided the runaways.

     This information adds to the history of the Booths and the Booth farm. For the general public who are only familiar with John Wilkes Booth, Ford’s statement shines a new light on the Booth family. The Booths were truly a house divided.

Note: I contacted Michael Pierce, an experienced Harford County historical research mapmaker, and he offered to help me map out the original Booth farm. With detailed research and using the latest mapping software, he determined that Junius obtained 159.25 acres in 1824. The following year he obtained a little over 17 acres—expanding the farm to about 177 acres, not the 150 acres that some authors claim. Mike is currently working on creating a map of the original farm that will be framed and displayed in Tudor Hall.