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Lock of Lincoln's hair and bloodied telegram up for auction

Lock of Lincoln's hair and bloodied telegram up for auction
Posted at 11:50 AM, Aug 28, 2020
and last updated 2020-08-28 14:50:29-04

A lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair, wrapped in a bloodstained telegram about his 1865 assassination, is up for sale.

Boston-based RR Auction says bidding has opened online for the items ahead of a live auction scheduled for Sept. 12.

Measuring roughly 2 inches long, the bushy lock of hair was removed during Lincoln’s postmortem examination after he was fatally shot at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., by John Wilkes Booth.

The auction house says it was given to Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, a Kentucky postmaster and a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln, the 16th president’s widow.