BOOTH, John Wilkes (1838-1865). Several strands of hair purportedly clipped from Booth's head at Garrett's Farm, 26 April 1865.
Housed in a mid to late 19th century daguerreotype case with accompanying image of Booth (Gutman 35). Case 3 x 2 3/4 in.
SEVERAL STRANDS OF HAIR CLIPPED FROM THE HEAD OF JOHN WILKES BOOTH AS HE LAY DYING AT GARRETT'S FARM.
After ten days on the run from federal authorities, John Wilkes Booth and David Herold arrived at the farm of Richard H. Garrett on April 24, 1865. Having not yet heard the news of Lincoln's assassination, the Garrett family welcomed the bedraggled strangers into their home. Among them was Ms. Lucinda Holloway, Mrs. Garrett's thirty-two-year-old sister.
Willie Jett, who brought Booth and Herold to Garrett's farm and introduced them as Confederate soldiers, was captured and interrogated by Lieutenant Conger and his men on April 25 and, from there, led troops to Garrett's, where in the early hours of April 26, they cornered Booth and Herold in Garrett's barn. With the assassin refusing to surrender, orders were given to set the barn aflame. A terrified David Herold was allowed to give himself up while Booth offered to fight the regiment. Moments later, a single shot rang out, and Booth fell to the ground in a heap, a bullet fired by Sergeant Boston Corbett having passed through Booth's neck and severed his spinal cord. The mortally wounded assassin was dragged out of the barn and laid down upon Garrett's porch.
As Booth lay dying, Lucinda Holloway fetched a pillow and placed it under his head, moistened his lips with water, and smoothed his forehead. After asking that his hands be lifted, Booth muttered his last words: "Useless, useless." As he died, "a stray curl that had fallen over my fingers...was cut off by Dr. [Charles] Urquhart and given to me." (Bryan, The Great American Myth, p.266.)
According to a 1949 affidavit by Otto Eisenschiml (not present here), this lock of hair was gifted by Lucinda Holloway to a Dr. C.S. Webb of Caroline County, Virginia, likely in exchange for medical services. From there, it was either sold or gifted to Otto Eisenschiml, a historian and conspiracy theorist whose signature work, Why Was Lincoln Murdered?, posits that Lincoln's death was the result of a grand conspiracy orchestrated by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.
PROVENANCE:
Lucinda Holloway (1831-1909), Virginia schoolteacher; Dr. C.S. Webb; Otto Eisenschiml (1880-1963), chemist and Lincoln historian
This lot is located in Chicago.
