Poe’s engagement ring is evidence of the tragic love story of Poe and his first and last fiancée Elmira Royster Shelton.
Engaged as teenagers only to have their engagement broken by her father, Poe and Shelton became engaged a second time in the last months of his life.
The mahogany fragment came from the original coffin in which Poe was buried on October 8, 1849.
In 1875, Poe’s body was moved across the cemetery from his unmarked grave to a better location where a large monument could be placed over his grave
The gold watch is engraved “Edgar A. Poe.” In 1843, Poe gave the watch to one of his creditors to pay off a debt. Although the watch has remained in private hands ever since, its existence has been known through newspaper articles about it dating from the 1880s until it appeared at auction at Christies in 2019.
Edgar Allan Poe’s waistcoat, kept by his mother-in-law Maria Poe Clemm after his death in 1849.
It was kept in a trunk of Poe’s clothing by Maria Poe Clemm, who left it to her niece Elizabeth Rebecca Herring Smith in 1871.
Poe and Alcott: An Unlikely Pairing
Come and watch Little Women (2019) presented by the Poe Museum and Good For Her Films on November 22nd at 5:45pm. Purchase tickets here. Edgar Allan Poe and Louisa May
This Veteran’s Day we celebrate Poe’s service in the United States Army. Learn about Poe’s brief military career and how it reflected his tumultuous relationship with his foster father. Edgar
Museum Update: Exhibit Redesign
For Immediate Release Poe Museum Concludes Transformative Redesign of Exhibits with Dedication of the Susan Jaffe Tane Room Richmond, Virginia October 22, 2025 – An intimate ribbon-cutting ceremony at the
