In 1865, when Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, the funerary arts were still just a side-gig for what was then the Dodge Furniture Company. Preserving the deceased’s remains through embalming wasn’t the mortician’s staple that it is today. Burials were held soon after death to avoid the natural decay process.That changed when Lincoln’s funeral train, dubbed “The Lincoln Special” carried the dead president’s remains by train on a two-week long journey from Washington D.C. to his home state of Illinois, stopping in 180 cities along the way for a series of open casket processions.The tens-of-thousands of mourners around the country must have been impressed by the posthumous preservation of the president, because shortly after, embalming became the norm, and the mortuary industry was launched.