Abraham Lincoln's hair wrapped in bloodstained telegram up for online auction

One might ask who would be interested in bidding for a lock of hair wrapped in blood-soaked paper, turns out the possibilities are real despite the macabre aura. A thick lock of former United States President Abraham Lincoln's hair along with a bloodstained telegram will be auctioned on September 12. Bidding for the items has opened and the minimum bidding amount is $10,000.

According to the auction house that is selling the items, the lock of hair and the telegram are estimated to fetch $75,000. The hair that is being auctioned was removed from Abraham Lincoln's head during his postmortem examination following his assassination on April 15, 1865. 

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'Hair of A. Lincoln'

The hair is mounted to an official War Department manuscript telegram sent to Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln. The telegram was sent to Dr. Todd by his assistant in the Post Office at Lexington, Kentucky and it arrived in Washington a few minutes after Abraham Lincoln was shot.

Next day, at the postmortem, when a lock of hair, clipped from near the President's left temple, was given to Dr. Todd, finding no other paper in his pocket, he wrapped the lock, stained with blood or brain fluid, in this telegram and hastily wrote on it 'Hair of A. Lincoln.'

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The telegram with the lock of hair along with images of Abraham Lincoln was matted and framed by Dr. Todd's son, James A. Todd. The frame also holds a letter from James Todd written in 1945 describing the events that succeeded following Lincoln's assassination and how his father got hold of the 16th US president's hair.

"At the time of President Lincoln's assassination, my father was in Washington visiting his kinsman, Col. Thomas M. Vincent, who was on the staff of the Adjutant General. Shortly after the shooting at Ford's Theatre, Secretary Stanton ordered Col. Vincent to take charge of the Peterson residence where Mr. Lincoln had been taken. My father went with Col. Vincent to the President's bedside and they remained there until his death the next morning. The lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair was cut from his head and given to my father during the performance of the postmortem and has remained entirely in the custody of our family since that time," the letter reads.

(Image Credit: RR Auction)

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