The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

Housed in a late 19th-century gutta-percha daguerreotype case, with a later woodcut image of Lincoln. 3 x 2 1/2 in. (72 x 63 mm).

A LOCK OF HAIR PURPORTEDLY CLIPPED FROM LINCOLN'S HEAD DURING HIS AUTOPSY.

Following Lincoln's death in the early hours of 15 April 1865, his body was removed from the Peterson House for an autopsy in the Prince of Wales Room of the Executive Mansion. Overseeing was Surgeon General of the United States Army Joseph K. Barnes, with the autopsy conducted by Colonel Joseph Woodward and Major Edward Curtis. Among the attendees was Dr. Charles Sabin Taft, who the night before had been lifted into the presidential box at Ford's Theatre following Booth's escape and had remained at Lincoln's side throughout his final hours at the Peterson House, and to whom Mary Lincoln would later gift the cuff button which Taft had torn away while searching for the president's pulse.

In a letter to his mother, Major Curtis wrote, "The room…contained but little furniture: a large, heavily curtained bed, a sofa or two, bureau, wardrobe, and chairs….Seated around the room were several general officers and some civilians, silent or conversing in whispers, and to one side, stretched upon a rough framework of boards and covered only with sheets and towels, lay—cold and immovable—what but a few hours before was the soul of a great nation." Upon completion of the autopsy, Brigadier General Matthew Davis Hardin entered and, at Mary Lincoln's request, asked that her cousin, Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, clip a few locks of hair for her as a keepsake. It is commonly believed that during this time, additional locks of hair were taken from Lincoln's head and distributed to those in attendance. In a short biographical sketch sent to Jesse Fell in 1859, Lincoln notably described himself as having "dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and grey eyes..."

The present lock was purchased by noted collector Oliver R. Barrett, whose collection is thoroughly documented in Carl Sandburg's Lincoln Collector (this lock of hair mentioned on p.208). Upon Barrett's death in 1950, his collection was sold by Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., on 19-20 February 1952, at which time the present lock of hair, along with locks clipped from Lincoln's head at his tomb and a lock of hair from his son, Willie, were sold. The locks of hair were sold again in 1966, this time to Illinois State Historian James W. Hickey and the Director of the Lincoln National Life Foundation, R. Gerald McMurtry. They agreed to split the locks of hair between them, and the present lot comes from the half that went to McMurtry.

[With:] A copy of the affidavit from McMurtry regarding provenance and history, as well as a handwritten note from McMurtry: "Abraham Lincoln's hair taken from his head after death. From the Oliver R. Barrett Lincoln Collection. R. Gerald McMurtry, 12/13/66."

PROVENANCE:
Oliver R. Barrett (1873-1950), American lawyer and noted Lincoln collector;

His sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 19-20 February 1952, Lot 155;

Purchased by Glenn Blodgett;

By descent to Blodgett's widow, sold to C.W. Loud in April 1966;

C.W. Loud Auctions, 27 November 1966, Sale 4, Lot L-14;

R. Gerald McMurtry (1906-1988), Director of the Lincoln National Life Foundation, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and noted Lincoln scholar;

Heritage Auctions, 26 February 2007, Sale 659, Lot 25051

REFERENCES:
Sandburg, Carl. Lincoln Collector: The Story of Oliver R. Barrett's Great Private Collection (1949)