Very rare historical display which includes strands of President Abraham Lincoln's hair, wood from the gallows where the Lincoln conspirators were hung, a piece of the cloth that bound the arms of Mrs. Mary Surratt during her execution and a strand of Mrs. Surratt's hair.

On July 7, 1865, Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt were hanged from a wooden scaffold in the yard of the Old Arsenal Penitentiary in Washington, D.C. They had been tried and found guilty as conspirators in the plot to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, and U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward, on April 14, 1865.

14 x 11, with burgundy suede outer mat and a gold Florentine inner mat, with four separate windows displaying the artifacts. The photographs in the display are high quality modern copies of original Civil War period images. Please note that the illustration of the display on my website is cropped as it is larger than my scanner.

This very rare historical display highlights Mary Surratt who was one of the four conspirators executed on July 7, 1865. The strand of Lincoln's hair originated from a well documented lock given to Mrs. Caroline Wright, the wife of the Governor of Indiana by Mary Lincoln. The documented wood fragments originated from relics obtained by a soldier stationed as a guard in the prison yard. Mary Surratt's hair was included in the effects of Samuel Curtis another guard at the prison and found in his 1865 diary. The remnant of cloth was included with a period note attesting that the wood came from the gallows and the cloth originated from the bindings that held her arms during the execution. These bindings had been made from material from a shelter tent at the same time the executioner, Christian Rath, made hoods from the same material. The latter is an incredibly rare relic of that faithful 1865 summer day, an extremely important day in American history! Mrs. Mary Surratt was the first woman ever executed by the United States Government! Provenance papers on all artifacts are included with the display.