Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln

A group of three locks of hair; each housed in a mid-to-late 19th-century daguerreotype case, with accompanying images of each protected behind glass. Tad's image is a modern print. Largest case, 4 x 5 in. (101 x 127 mm).

During the Victorian era it was commonplace to keep locks of hair as mementos, not only of the living but also of the dead. Following the death of their third son, William Wallace ("Willie") Lincoln, on 20 February 1862, from what is believed to have been typhoid fever, the White House was plunged into mourning, with Mary Lincoln said to be inconsolable. Soon afterward, she was introduced to Georgetown mediums Margaret Anne and Belle Laurie. A short time later, the grieving First Lady began to hold séances in the Red Room of the White House, many of which President Lincoln himself is believed to have attended.

Both Abraham and Willie Lincoln's hair have black ribbon tied around them, while Mary Todd's exhibits a lavender-colored ribbon. These locks of hair paint a poignant picture of the losses the Lincolns, and Mary Todd Lincoln in particular, endured throughout their lives.

The locks of hair belonging to Abraham and Willie Lincoln were said to have been purchased in 1966 from C.W. Loud by Lincoln collection curator James T. Hickey, and R. Gerald McMurtry of the Lincoln National Life Foundation. They then divided the locks of Abraham and Willie Lincoln's hair between them. McMurtry took lock No. 3 "Abraham Lincoln's hair clipped from his head at the tomb", which was later purchased by Elsie and Phillip D. Sang and sold at Sotheby's, 18 June 2002, lot 244A, and sold again at Heritage 12 May 2012, lot 38084. Hickey took locks No.1 ("Willie Lincoln's hair" and No. 2 "Abraham Lincoln's hair taken from his head after death"), which are presumably the ones offered here. The captions, as described in the Barrett sale, are no longer present. It is presumed that Hickey would later sell his locks to Lincoln collector Louise Taper.

Provenance:

Oliver Barrett (1873-1950), American lawyer and collector of Lincolniana (Abraham and Willie Lincoln locks); previously sold, his sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, 19 February 1952, lot 155

Purchased by Glenn Blodgett; sold his sale, to C.W. Loud, 27 November 1966, lot 14

James T. Hickey and R. Gerald McMurtry, said to have been purchased from above

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California

Exhibition:

The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America, at the Huntington Library, October 1993-August 1994

The case with Willie Lincoln's hair and photograph also appeared in the exhibition Abraham Lincoln: A Personal Journey at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, 2001-2002