April 17, 2026
When timelines collide
Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in the same photo
Two Presidents, One Photo: Awe, timeline drama, and the "horrible man" mystery
TLDR: A newly spotlighted 1865 photo likely shows young Teddy Roosevelt watching Lincoln’s NYC funeral, an archival twist that has commenters awestruck. The thread then explodes into jokes about Lincoln-at-the-theatre, a timeline dispute over when Teddy’s wife could’ve confirmed the story, and debate over her “horrible man” remark.
Internet history nerds are losing it over a wild crossover: a Civil War–era photo appears to show 7-year-old Teddy Roosevelt peeking from a window as Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession passes down Broadway in 1865. Hungarian-born historian Stefan Lorant reportedly spotted the Roosevelt family home in the shot and later got confirmation from Teddy’s wife that the boys in the window were Teddy and his brother. Cue the quote that launched a thousand threads: she remembered crying at the sight and snapped, “That horrible man!”—apparently about whoever locked her in a back room so she couldn’t watch. Meanwhile, another archival gem resurfaced: a 1952 find of Lincoln at Gettysburg, hours before the famous speech. Civil War receipts, anyone? Full story and more finds here.
But the comments are where the fireworks are. One camp is pure goosebumps—“Very cool story!”—and waxing poetic about how history feels close. Another camp slams the brakes: “The timeline doesn’t match up,” pointing out Teddy’s wife died in 1948 while Lorant’s research is cited as the 1950s. Did Lorant interview her earlier? Did the article fudge the dates? Thread detectives are on it. Then the humor brigade rolls in with the fake Letterboxd gag—“the worst experience I’ve had at a theatre,” signed “Abraham Lincoln”—because the internet can’t resist. And the “horrible man” mystery? Commenters are betting she meant Teddy himself (playfully!) for locking her away, because of course this presidential meet-cute had drama.
Key Points
- •Historian Stefan Lorant examined an 1865 photo of Lincoln’s New York City funeral procession and identified the house of Cornelius van Schaack Roosevelt.
- •Lorant observed two boys in a second-story window; Theodore Roosevelt’s wife later affirmed they were Theodore and his brother Elliott.
- •The article recounts the scene of Lincoln’s funeral along Broadway on April 25, 1865, as viewed from the Roosevelt residence.
- •In 1952, National Archives official Josephine Cobb found a Mathew Brady glass plate negative of the Gettysburg speakers’ stand from 1863.
- •Photo enlargement confirmed Lincoln in the Gettysburg image, considered the first known photo of him at Gettysburg before his address.