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Darwin's 'beard' on show for first time

Strands of hair believed to have fallen out of Charles Darwin's beard will go on show in public for the first time tomorrow in what is expected to be a blockbuster exhibition on the Victorian naturalist.

The wisps were discovered this summer by Randal Keynes, Darwin's great-great grandson, while he looked through the contents of a small leather box that had been kept by Darwin's daughter Etty.

They were wrapped in tissue paper marked "remaining hair" and placed in an envelope on which Etty wrote "Found after his death in my father's papers".

The small collection of loose hairs, which are going on display at the Natural History Museum, are thought to have fallen from Darwin's beard on to his writing desk, where they were collected when he died in 1882...

Read entire article at Independent (UK)