In A Strange City

The articles in question are a “mourning” locket, or memento mori, believed to contain the hair of Virginia Clemm, Poe’s cousin and child bride, and a one-of-a-kind gold bug stickpin, alleged to be a gift to Poe from a female admirer.

One theory holds that Poe had these items with him when he died in Baltimore on October 19, 1849.

Serious Poe scholars attacked this idea almost immediately pointing out there is no evidence linking the jewelry to Poe. Neither item is mentioned in Poe’s correspondence, nor in the letters of Marie Clemm, Virginia ’s mother. And, although the items are consistent with jewelry design of the early- to mid-nineteenth century even open-minded scholars concede their authenticity will never be established. If Poe had jewelry on him at the time of his death, it was most likely a wedding ring for Elmira Shelton, whom he hoped to marry.

“I don’t care if they can’t be authenticated,” said Mary Yerkes, who runs the Maryland Mu-sheum. “I am delighted to own them and will even abide by the donor’s conditions, although they are not legally binding.”

The anonymous donor not only requested that the items be placed on permanent display-with the exception of loans to other museums-but also stipulated that the Mu-sheum must change its name, according to the computer-generated note that accompanied the items, “to anything else, absolutely anything, as long as it doesn’t have a pun in it.”