This month , American chronicle is getting a short hairy at Philadelphia’sAcademy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University . To honour the upcomingDemocratic National Convention — which will be make in the City of Brotherly Love from July 25 to 28 , 2016 — the rude science research institution and museum is hosting an expo calledPresidential Archives : Letters , Hair , and Fossils . There , the Associated Pressreports , visitors can look at the ringlet of historic U.S. chair — admit George Washington , Thomas Jefferson , John Adams , John Quincy Adams , and Andrew Jackson — until the presentation ends on July 29 .
The exhibit also admit the personal correspondence of former commanders - in - chief , and far-out token like Thomas Jefferson’smastodon fossils . However , its main draw play is arguably its extensive motley of presidential tresses , which were in the beginning collect by a Philadelphia attorney call Peter Arrell Browne . During his lifetime , Browne , who lived from 1762 to 1860 , amassed a 12 - volume appeal of hair’s-breadth . After his expiry , his “ hair albums ” — which include samples from mammal , human ethnic groups , and famous figures like Napoleon Bonaparte — were donate to the Academy of Natural Sciences , the museum ’s websitestates .
Collecting hair might seem strange today , but it wasa common pastimeduring the 18thand 19thcenturies . People often kept hair clippings from jazz ace , and stay fresh them in jewellery , like lockets , as a mark of their affection . However , Browne — who , as a former penis of the Academy of Natural Sciences was concerned in skill and natural account — take the hobby a step further : He compose directly to famous people ( or their relatives ) and asked for the goods , which he exact would help him in his scientific research . ( Some of Browne ’s hair’s-breadth snippet are accompanied by letters , which explain how they end up in his possession . )
Browne never completed his ambition collection . He taste — and failed — to collect locks from Ben Franklin andJefferson Davis , who at the time was Secretary of War and would afterward become the United States President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War . However , Browne still manage to make a quirky , humanizing homage to America ’s founding male parent .
For more selective information on Presidential Archives : letter , Hair , and Fossils , visit the Academy of Natural Science’swebsite .
[ h / tAssociated Press ]
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