BELOW SUPERNAV drop zone ⇩

Lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair sells for more than $81,000

The statue of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, by sculptor Daniel Chester French, situated in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, circa 1955. (Photo by Orlando/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

MAIN AREA TOP drop zone ⇩

ovp test

mLife Diagnostics LLC: Oral Fluid Drug Testing

Male shot by female at Shreveport apartment

Class to create biodiverse backyard

Rules for outbursts at Caddo School Board Meeting

BOSTON (AP) — A lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair along with a blood-stained telegram about his 1865 assassination have been sold at auction for more than $81,000.

The items were sold during an auction that ended Saturday, according to RR Auction of Boston.

No information about the buyer was disclosed.

The roughly 2-inch long lock of hair was removed during Lincoln’s postmortem examination after he was fatally shot at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., by John Wilkes Booth.

It was presented to Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, a Kentucky postmaster and a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln, the 16th president’s widow, according to RR Auction. Dr. Todd was present when Lincoln’s body was examined.

The hair is mounted on an official War Department telegram sent to Dr. Todd by George Kinnear, his assistant in the Lexington, Kentucky, post office. The telegram was received in Washington on April 14, 1865.

Lock of Lincoln hair up for auction

RR Auction vouched for the authenticity of the lock and telegram. Dr. Todd’s son, James Todd, wrote in a 1945 letter that the clipping of hair “has remained entirely in the custody of our family since that time.” It last was sold in 1999, the auction house said.

“When you are dealing with samples of Lincoln’s hair, provenance is everything – and in this case, we know that this came from a family member who was at the President’s bedside,” Bobby Livingston, RR Auction’s executive vice president, said in a statement.

The $81,250 selling price was slightly more than the $75,000 the auction house was hoping the items would fetch.

The telegram is significant because it disproved a theory that then-Secretary of War Edwin Stanton plotted to kill Lincoln because of their personal and political differences, according to historians.

Some people said Stanton ordered military communications to be disrupted, allowing Booth to briefly escape. The time stamp on the dispatch shows that military telegraph lines were functioning on the night Lincoln was assassinated.

Northeast

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

MAIN AREA MIDDLE drop zone ⇩

Trending on NewsNation

MAIN AREA BOTTOM drop zone ⇩

tt

KC Chiefs parade shooting: 1 dead, 21 shot including 9 kids | Morning in America

Witness of Chiefs parade shooting describes suspect | Banfield

Kansas City Chiefs parade shooting: Mom of 2 dead, over 20 shot | Banfield

WWE star Ashley Massaro 'threatened' by board to keep quiet about alleged rape: Friend | Banfield

Friend of WWE star: Ashley Massaro 'spent hours' sobbing after alleged rape | Banfield

Clear

la

55°F Clear Feels like 54°
Wind
4 mph NW
Humidity
54%
Sunrise
Sunset

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 49F. Winds light and variable.
49°F Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 49F. Winds light and variable.
Wind
4 mph NNE
Precip
1%
Sunset
Moon Phase
Waning Crescent