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A lock of President Abraham Lincoln's hair attached to a bloodstained telegram are up for auction this month, with the lot expected to sell for big money.
The auction, which is being handled by RR Auction’s Remarkable Rarities, includes a two-inch lock of hair that was removed after Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth and given to his wife's cousin, Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd.
The telegram is from the War Department and was sent to Dr. Todd by George H. Kinnear, his assistant. It was received in Washington at 11 p.m. on April 14, 1865, according to a post from the auction house.
(Credit: RR Auction)
ABRAHAM LINCOLN MYSTERY 'ALMOST CERTAINLY' SOLVED, EXPERTS SAY
"The above telegram…arrived in Washington a few minutes after Abraham Lincoln was shot," reads a caption accompanying the telegram, written by Dr. Todd's son, James A. Todd. "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 in pencil: 'Hair of A. Lincoln.'"
"Clipping a lock of someone's hair was quite appropriate at the time for a memory," Bobby Livington, executive vice president RR Auction in Boston, told Fox News in a phone interview. "The thing that makes this sample incredibly important was that it came from Mary Lincoln Todd's family and the telegram was dated the night of the assassination."
The telegram is matted and framed along with a letter from Dr. Todd's son, James, and images of Lincoln, Dr. Todd and his son.
(Credit: RR Auction)
James' letter, dated Feb. 12, 1945, reads in part:
"My father, Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, was a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln. He became intimately acquainted with Abraham Lincoln during the years preceding the Civil War, when the Lincolns visited Lexington. When Lincoln became President in 1861, he appointed my father Post Master at Lexington, which position he occupied until 1869. 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 next morning, except for a short interval when Col. Vincent and my father obtained a carriage and went for Rev. Dr. Gurley. Dr. Todd, following the President's death, accompanied his body to the White House, was present at the postmortem examination that afternoon, attended the funeral in the East Room of the Executive Mansion and also the interment ceremonies at Springfield, Illinois. The lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair, which I have presented to you for your collection of Lincolniana, 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."
For decades, there were rumors that Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton was behind Lincoln's assassination, going so far as to disrupt communication in and out of Washington. The conspiracy theory continued well into the 20th century, when oil executive Otto Eisenschiml published his 1937 book, "Why was Lincoln Murdered?"
However, the telegraph strikes at the heart of those rumors, Livingston added, proving they were nothing more than just a conspiracy theory. "This telegram is proof that those conspiracy theories are unfounded."
Engraved William G. Jackman after photo by Mathew Brady.. (Photo by Stapleton Collection/Corbis via Getty Images)
Bidding on the two-inch lock of hair goes on until Sept. 12. It has a pre-sale estimate of at least $75,000.
The lock of Lincoln's hair is not the only presidential hair to be sold at auction in recent memory.
Last year, a tuft of hair from George Washington attached to an autographed note signed by former Secretary of State James A. Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton's third son, was sold at auction.