Black-and-white print showing a man in a toga-like garment holding a young girl in one arm while another man sinks to one knee and seems to plead with him

Scene from Le Monstre et le Magicien

Scratchboard black-and-white portrait of Mary Shelley, depicted looking at the viewer and holding a needle and thread with which she sews her left hand onto her arm

Illustration of Mary Shelley by Mark Summers

Lock of brown hair encapsulated in a mylar sleeve

Lock of Mary Shelley’s hair
ca. January 7, 1815
The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle

Lock of Mary Shelley’s hair

Mary Shelley (then Mary Godwin) was 17 when, upon request, she sent this lock of her hair to Thomas Jefferson Hogg, who had declared his love for her. Hogg had been encouraged by Percy Bysshe Shelley, who advocated free love, and whose child Mary was carrying. In her letter enclosing the lock of hair, she delivered an affectionate rejection. When Mary Shelley reunited with Hogg in London in 1823, she found him to be “same as ever”—a painful reminder of the tragic changes that she herself had endured since she last saw him.

Holding Division: Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle

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