Rose Velvet
A Presidential Side Quest Today
“Daddy, daddy!” My daughter is holding open a book, something about Amazing and Weird Stories, and her eyes are wide. “Did you know that Teddy Rose Velvet had some of Abe-ham Lincoln’s hair in his ring?”
As you can imagine, proclamations such as this stop me in my tracks. There’s so much happening here.
“Teddy who?” I ask, knowing who she means, but wanting her to say that name again.
“Teddy Rose Velvet,” she repeats. Then, like she’s already a teenager, she says, “He was a president, daddy. I thought you knew the presidents.”
Henceforth in my mind, Teddy Roosevelt will always now be known as Teddy Rose Velvet. That’s SUCH a better name.
Then, I had to admit something to her - that I did not know that Teddy Rose Velvet kept a lock of Lincoln’s hair in his ring.
“Why did he do that,” I asked. “And where did he get the hair.”
“I dunno.” She shrugged.
So we went to find out. And what do you know, it’s true!
The ring is kept at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site in Oyster Bay, New York. That was the home of Rose Velvet from 1885 to 1919, and considered his “Summer White House” while in office.
And here’s a neat connection to New Hampshire. Where did Rose Velvet get a hair ring? None other than John Milton Hay, Lincoln’s personal secretary who was at Lincoln’s bedside when honest Abe passed. The John Hay Fells Estate is now a popular and lovely tourist attraction on the banks of Lake Sunapee.
When Rose Velvet was inaugurated in 1905, Hay - who would become Teddy’s Secretary of State - sent the Bull Moose the ring along with a note that said, “Please wear it tomorrow; you are one of the men who most thoroughly understand and appreciate Lincoln.”
Rose Velvet felt a deep connection to Lincoln, whose funeral procession through New York he watched when he was six-years-old.
One final weird thing: Hay bought six strands of Lincoln’s hair at his former bosses autopsy for $100. That’s quite a bit of money for 1865. And Hay also had strands of George Washington’s hair, which he gave to presidents McKinley and Hayes.
Hay collected presidential hair. So, yeah, think about that next time you’re browsing the garden at The Fells.
I love this one! Teddy Rose Velvet is now in our lexicon too. :-)
So much going on here! Less in awe of the traditions of other cultures than the traditions in our past. (Like the death of Longfellow's wife putting their kid's hair in melted wax and setting her clothes on fire... story told at Longfellow house in Portland.