These images and documents relate to Lizzie Borden studies in various ways. Some are ancillary to the case, some relate directly to Lizzie the person.
This is Lizzie Borden’s arrest record from the booking log at the Fall River Police Department. The book still exists. You must make an appointment, however, to view the original record.
This page appeared in an eBay sale where the owner was selling a book of Fall River stock transactions. In it, remarkably, were the signatures of Andrew Borden, Lizzie Borden, and Emma Borden.
Another view of the Lizzie Borden signature from the stock book that was sold on eBay. Note the signature of Emma L. Borden, Lizzie’s sister, two signatures above hers.
Stock certificate issued to Lizzie Borden for 9 shares in the Troy Cotten and Woolen Manufactory. A remarkable artifact!
Lizzie Borden’s signature from her Fall River Public Library card. Note the use of the new name “Lizbeth”, which would date this card to sometime after 1904.
Full view of Lizzie Borden’s library card for the Fall River Public Library. According to one library official, the library purged its written cards at one point, going digital. At that time the card was discarded. Someone recognized the historical importance of the document and saved it from the trash. The card is in a private collection.
Page 1 of letter to a neighbor regarding a noisy bird. Letter is in a private collection after being purchased at auction.
Page 2 of letter to a neighbor regarding a noisy bird. The owner of the bird in question lived directly across the street from Maplecroft. It is unknown what bred of bird was so noisy, or where the bird was kept that it bothered Lizzie so.
Lizzie Borden’s signature on her will. Note the use of both names. This was necessary as Lizzie had not legally changed her name to Lizbeth, but wished to be known that way. Her legal birth name was required on this document.
Sketch of Lizzie Borden from the Boston Globe as she appeared in court of June of 1893. The trial was held before the age of photography in newspapers, so the tradition of the courtroom sketch artist, still employed in trials where cameras are not allowed, was integral to raising the public’s interest in reading about the news of the day.
Lizzie Borden on trial, drawn from life by Louis F. Grant. A day in court in New Bedford at the trial of the murder of her father and stepmother, June 1893.
The Lizzie Borden trial, as depicted in the Illustrated American, June 1893.
The Lizzie Borden trial, as depicted in the Illustrated American, June 1893.
First day cover of Lizzie Borden postcard, commissioned to celebrate the 1992 Centennial Lizzie Borden Conference in Fall River, MA.
“The Swoon Heard Round the World.” An artist’s depiction of Lizzie Borden fainting as the skulls of her father and stepmother are shown to the jury as evidence. Neither sisters were informed that the heads had been removed and the flesh boiled off until this day.
J. Duthie, “The Village Elms, Sunday Morning in New England”- circa 1878. A print of this artwork was hanging above the couch in the sitting room, over the place of Andrew Borden’s demise. After painstaking investigation, the blurry image from the crime scene photograph was definitively identified as this work by historians Len Rebello and Bill Pavao.
Defense attorney and former Governor of Massachusetts, George Dexter Robinson, Prosecuting Attorneys Hosea Knowlton, and William Moody, in a Boston Globe artist’s rendering.
Photograph of the courtroom at the New Bedford Superior Court where the Lizzie Borden trial was held in June of 1893.
Handcuffs, c. 1890s.
Lizzie/Elsie Borden Cartoon by artist Bill Kelly, used here with his permission.
Food pail and stool from Lizzie’s jail cell. Now in the Fall River Historical Society.
Artist’s depiction of Emma from the Boston Globe, June 17, 1893, at Lizzie’s Trial.
Artist’s depiction of the Borden servant, Bridget Sullivan, from the Boston Globe, June 8, 1893.
Cover of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly, one of dozens of papers covering the Trial of the Century.
Portion of the indictment and verdict in the Lizzie Borden case.
Authenticated Lizzie Borden signature.
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[one-third last]”The Last Scene of the Great Lizzie Borden Trial.” Lizzie stands at right as the verdict of non guilty is read.[/one-third]