Content: A lock of golden blond hair. Mounted in clear plastic envelope within two-leaved paperboard windowed frame. Along with a nineteenth-century attestation in an unidentified hand; text reads in full, "Hair of 'Alega [sic] Byron' / child of Shelley's the Poets / wife's Sister / She signed herself 'Claire' / see Letter in British Museum / F. A. K." Library records indicate the hair clipping was taken from Thomas Moore's copy of William Martin Leake's Historical Outline of the Greek Revolution (1826).
Biographical/historical: In a letter dated 3 August 1818, Lord Byron described his eighteen-month-old daughter Allegra to his half-sister, Augusta Leigh: "...she is very pretty -- remarkably intelligent -- and a great favorite with everybody ... she has very blue eyes -- and that singular forehead -- fair curly hair -- and a devil of a Spirit -- but that is Papa's ..." (cf. Marchand's Byron's letters and journals, v. 6, p. 62).
Content: Filed in SC manuscript file under "Byron, Allegra."
