Lock of Sir Walter Scott’s hair, Melrose, Scotland, 1832
date: label: date made
content: 1832
name: label: associated person
content: Scott, Sir Walter
notes: label: Description
content: This lock of hair was cut from the head of the Scottish poet and historical novelist Sir Walter Scott during his last illness. Scott’s physician gave the lock to Hew Ainslie, a celebrated Scottish poet who had emigrated to the United States.
label: Description
content: Ainslie is best remembered for Scottish Songs, Ballads, and Poems, in which he recounted his struggles in his native land and the opportunities afforded him in his adopted land. On his literary tours of Scotland, Ainslie was welcomed as a national hero, the quintessential Scotsman made good.
label: Description
content: After Hew Ainslie’s death in 1878, his son George, U.S. congressional delegate from the territory of Idaho, donated Scott’s hair lock to the National Museum in a carefully sealed and labeled glass vial.
label: Description
content: Gift of George Ainslie, 1882
setName: label: See more items in
content: Political History: Political History, General History Collection
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: Souvenir Nation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: George Ainslie
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PL.001074
label: catalog number
content: 1074
label: accession number
content: 11743
objectType: label: Object Name
content: hair lock