#Lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair sells for more than $81,000

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This July 2020 photo released by RR Auction shows a bloodstained telegram and lock of hair from former President Abraham Lincoln
AP; Getty Images

A lock of President Abraham Lincoln’s hair that was removed after his death has sold for over $81,000 – along with a blood-stained telegram about his 1865 assassination.

The 2-inch-long thatch of hair and telegram sold during an auction that ended Saturday, according to RR Auction of Boston, which did not disclose information about the buyer.

The $81,250 selling price was more than the $75,000 the auction house was hoping the items would fetch.

The hair was removed during the 16th president’s postmortem examination after he was fatally shot at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC, by John Wilkes Booth.

It was presented to Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, a Kentucky postmaster and a cousin of the president’s widow, Mary Todd Lincoln, according to RR Auction. Todd was present when Lincoln’s body was examined.

The hair is affixed to the official War Department telegram sent to Todd by George Kinnear, his assistant in the Lexington, Kentucky, post office. The missive was received in Washington at 11 p.m. April 14, 1865.


RR Auction vouched for the authenticity of the hair and telegram.

Todd’s son, James Todd, wrote in a 1945 letter that the clipping “has remained entirely in the custody of our family since that time.” It was last sold in 1999, the auction house said.

“When you are dealing with samples of Lincoln’s hair, provenance is everything — and in this case, we know that this came from a family member who was at the President’s bedside,” Bobby Livingston, RR Auction’s executive vice president, said in a statement.

With Post wires