Lock of hair of the poet Robert Fergusson (1750-1774).
Fergusson had a formative influence on Burns' work and Burns later paid for a headstone to be erected over Fergusson's unmarked grave in Canongate Churchyard and wrote the poem beginning 'Ill-fated genius! Heaven-taught Fergusson!'
Mounted in an oval frame, labelled 'A lock of Fergusson's Hair, given by his sister Mrs Inverairity, 1799'; the lock was given to Dr David Irving who gave it to his daughter Miss Janet Irving of 5 Salisbury Place, Edinburgh, who gave it to the Museum in 1876. Lent to the Scottish Exhibition in Glasgow in 1911 (label on back of frame).
