It would be so much better to be able to touch and feel them. Just by looking at them it is very hard to get an idea of what it would have felt like to wear them. Samuel Arnold described at length in his book "Confessions of a Lincoln Conspirator" about how uncomfortable they were. Hot, stuffy, itchy, pushed on the eyelids making it painful on the eyes and the mouth hole was so small it was next to impossible to eat.
If Lewis Powell hadn't slammed his head against the walls of his cell on the ship would they have had to wear them at all? Weren't the balls and chains and lily irons enough? I understand that there had never been a presidential assassination before and everyone wanted to make the conspirators suffer as much as possile but this seems extreme. But if Stanton had anything to do with it, then I'm not surprised.
It's a little misleading to have 8 hoods on display since I am 99% sure that Dr. Mudd and Mary Surratt did not wear hoods. Obviously Herold, Powell, Atzerodt, Arnold, O'Laughlin, and Spangler did but who wore the other two?
I wonder what the public would think if the prisoners were led into the court room with them on. I've read accounts of how shocked some court room visitors were at the state of the prisoners dirty, gaunt, scared and cowardly. The harsh irons and leg chains certainly didn't help.
