George Washington’s Hair: How Early Americans Remembered the Founders

Mostly hidden from public view, scores of putative locks of George Washington’s hair are held, more than two centuries after his death, in the collections of America’s historical societies, public and academic archives, and museums. Excavating the origins of these bodily artifacts, Keith Beutler uncovers a forgotten strand of early American memory practices and emerging patriotic identity, as exemplified by the craze for collecting locks of Washington’s hair. As Beutler recounts, ordinary Americans successfully enlisted memory practices rooted in the physical to demand a place in the body politic, powerfully contributing to antebellum political democratization.