Small wooden fragment, approximately 2 inches long, salvaged as a souvenir by a guard at the prison on the day of the execution of Mary Surratt and three other Lincoln assassination conspirators. The present relic formed part of a larger assemblage of related material and is accompanied by a period note substantiating its origin. It reads, in part: “The relic hunters were about and despite the strong cordon of guards one man soon appeared with a handful of chips from the gallows and another with an inch bit of the rope.”

Mary Surratt was executed in Washington, D.C., on 7 July 1865 for her alleged role in the conspiracy that followed Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. She was charged with assisting John Wilkes Booth’s plot, chiefly by permitting her boardinghouse to be used by the conspirators and by helping conceal weapons. Her execution, carried out alongside three male co-conspirators, marked the first federal execution of a woman in United States history.

[Abraham Lincoln, Politics, Lincoln Assassination, John Wilkes Booth]