Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines a relic as “an object esteemed and venerated because of association with a saint or martyr.” Although we have no martyr’s bones here at the Historical Society, this Lincoln 头发 locket (one of two in our collection) is among several relics associated with various historical figures and events. 正如马修·丹尼斯在他的序言中所指出的那样 美国文物和公共记忆的政治, relics can take many forms (most of which can be found at this Society):

They could be “corporeal” (skulls, bones, blood, teeth, 头发, nails, and assorted lumps of flesh). They could be noncorporeal items that were possessed by or came into direct contact with a significant individual or event, including articles of clothing … pieces of personal property … or other associated residual things … manuscript items or printed 书, 写短信, 信, and scraps of paper bearing an autograph signature or graphic inscription, or even the grooved footpaths of Christ or the ruts of western pioneers’ wagons. 以任何形式, 他们共同的, essential characteristic has been (and remains) their extraordinary ability to connect those in their presence directly to the past …

事实上，无论是这个吊坠盒还是其他的 收藏中的丧服首饰; 头发 乔治·华盛顿和亚历山大·汉密尔顿; 鱼钩 据说是由船长的骨头制成的. 做饭; 一个炮弹 found near the battlefield at Lexington; or 纠结的根源 from the Liberty tree; all have the power to connect researchers to the past as much as, 如果不超过, 一页上的字. 尽管随着时间的推移, the 麻萨诸塞州 Historical Society has become primarily a repository of manuscripts, 书, 比如材料, 收集的需要 工件, “artificial and natural curiosities … which may elucidate … natural and political history” as well was part of the Historical Society’s mission from the beginning.

“昨天，我收到霍尔法官的信。”

1895年1月5日, Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar transmitted a parcel containing a gold locket and a letter to the 麻萨诸塞州 Historical Society, 他从1864年起就是其中的一员. 在书中，他描述了这个遗迹的历史:

I desire … to present to the 麻萨诸塞州 Historical Society a gold locket containing a lock of 头发 taken from the head of the murdered President, 亚伯拉罕。林肯, 就在他被布斯刺杀的那晚. 这是1871年左右，上校给我的. 地理. D. Wise, a graduate of West Point, who was mustered out of the U.S. 陆军准将志愿服务. 1, 1867, and whose daughter had recently married my eldest son. General Wise told me that he was in Washington on the evening of the assassination, and that one of the medical men attending on the President took the lock of 头发 from Lincoln‘s head and gave it to him. 他说他是我的好朋友, 告诉了我这个医生的名字, 我不太记得了吗, 但我的印象是. 罗伯特K. 石头. General Wise said he had the lock of 头发 divided, and set in two separate lockets. The one which he gave to me has been in my possession ever since … It does not seem to me that so interesting a relic, 纪念这样一个历史事件的, should be intrusted permanently to the possession of private parties, but should rather be held by some public historical institution, 或其他公共机构, where it may gratify the interested curiosity of that great number of people “who are touched by identicals.”

甚至在他弥留之际, Hoar was cognizant of the importance and lasting value of this piece of the past. The members of the Historical Society rushed a letter back to him, accepting the gift and thanking Hoar for “intrusting to its charge an object of such great and ever increasing veneration and interest.“一月底, Hoar passed away after insuring that this memory of Lincoln’s life and death would live on in tangible form and be accessible to the public in perpetuity.

埃比尼泽·洛克伍德·霍尔是谁?

埃比尼泽·洛克伍德·霍尔出生在康科德, 麻萨诸塞州, in 1816, 撒母耳和撒拉(谢尔曼)哈尔的儿子. He entered Harvard at age 15 and eventually studied law there, passing the bar in 1839. In 1846, Hoar was elected to the 麻萨诸塞州 Senate and two years later, helped his father to establish the Free Soil Party of 麻萨诸塞州 which opposed the extension of slavery to the west. After appointments to the Court of Common Pleas and the 麻萨诸塞州 Supreme Judicial Court, Hoar was named Attorney General of the United States by President Ulysses S. 1869年，他的任期只持续了一年. In 1870, 格兰特要求霍尔辞职, 迫切需要南方参议员的支持, who wanted a southerner in the post of Attorney General. He went on to serve on the commission that settled the Alabama Claims, and after a term in the U.S. House of Representatives, Hoar returned to Concord to practice law. He is buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord beneath a stone lauding him as an “invincible champion in a righteous cause.”