A Beinecke Top Ten List for Halloween

Locks of Robert Louis Stevenson’s hair (“Dear Smoutie’s curls”), 1852, 1855, Robert Louis Stevenson Collection, GEN MSS 684.

Letter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Hugh Stuart Boyd including a lock of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s hair, 1843 December 12, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Collection, GEN MSS 839.

Lock of Algernon Swinburne’s hair, Algernon Swinburne Collection, GEN MSS 303.

Lock of Alfred Tennyson’s hair in envelope labeled in Emily Sellwood Tennyson’s hand, Alfred Tennyson Collection, GEN MSS 276.

Letter from James Fenimore Cooper to his wife Susan De Lancey Cooper, with Cooper’s hair from 1851, James Fenimore Cooper Collection, YCAL MSS 415.

Score for Auf Wiedersehen, accompanied by locks of hair of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Cécile Jeanrenaud Mendelssohn, and a leaf from Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s grave.

Teeth (Ezra Pound), Ezra Pound Papers Addition, YCAL MSS 53.

Death mask of H.D., Yale Collection of American Literature, 1980.445 (pictured).

Death mask of Thornton Wilder, Thornton Wilder Papers, YCAL MSS 108.

Beinecke Top Tens gather (approximately) ten related items to give an at-a-glance look at some of the Library’s interesting, important, strange, compelling, beautiful holdings. To see more lists, click here: Beinecke Top Tens. To suggest a list subject, contact us: Top Ten Ideas.

List complied by HD.