Conservators Kate Ridgeway, left, and Sue Donovan remove a book from the Lee monument time capsule on Dec. 22. (Photo by Jay Paul)
“And what are you gonna find? A clue! And then what are you gonna find? Another clue!” — Jon Voight, “National Treasure.”
We got the wrong time capsule.
On Wednesday, Dec. 22, around 10 a.m., Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) conservators Kate Ridgeway and Chelsea Blake, along with Sue Donovan, who is conservator for special collections at the University of Virginia, began the detailed process of opening the time capsule discovered inside the Robert E. Lee monument pedestal.
Workers dismantling the pedestal uncovered the capsule on Dec. 17, deposited approximately 20 feet high in a 1,500-pound block of granite in the north center of the Lee plinth. After posing for selfies with their discovery, construction workers removed the massive stone and transported it to DHR’s conservation lab in Richmond.
The capsule’s location in the center of the pedestal was a surprise to everyone, as newspapers from the time of the laying of the cornerstone indicated the time capsule was placed in the pedestal’s northeast corner.
This capsule holds a particular interest. On Oct. 27, 1887, the Richmond Times-Dispatch listed one of the items inside as a “picture of Lincoln lying in his coffin.” It had been donated by a Hanover County school teacher named Patti Leake. If it is an authentic picture of Lincoln lying in state, it could be worth upwards of $250,000, according to Warrenton-based photography curator Cliff Krainick.
After arriving at the DHR lab, Brian Howard, senior conservator at B.R. Howard & Associates, the contractor hired to remove the Lee monument pedestal, supervised the removal of the box from the block by making cuts in the granite with diamond-coated saws, then driving wedges into the cuts, breaking sections out. The box also was sealed in the block with very hard masonry, which was cut away until the box could be safely removed. Once removed, the box was taken inside the conservation lab.
On Wednesday, Gov. Ralph Northam and First Lady Pam Northam arrived at the lab. DHR Director Julie Langan described the slow process of opening the box, admitting that there were “anomalies” between this box and the one described in historical records.
“Anomalies” is an understatement. Nothing about this box seemed to match the historical records, leaving many to believe it was not the original time capsule containing the mysterious “picture of Lincoln lying in his coffin.”
Newspapers from 1887, the year the original time capsule was placed, list the capsule’s dimensions as 14-by-14-by-8 inches. The box found measures 11.5-by-8-by-4 inches, and a portable X-ray fluorescence machine proved it was made of lead, not copper, as the original records indicated. Also, because of the lead construction, conservators could not see if there was even anything inside prior to opening the box.
Finally, the newspapers reported there was an inscription on the side of the original capsule, which stated, “This cornerstone of a monument to be erected to the memory of General Robert E. Lee was laid with Masonic ceremonies on Oct. 27, 1887, by the Grand Lodge of Virginia, A.F. and A. Masons.” This inscription does not appear on this lead box.
Lead conservator Kate Ridgeway agreed that the lead box was “not what we were expecting.” She explained that a problem they were encountering with breaking the seal was that the mortar set around the box appeared to have seeped into the area where the lid was attached. That mortar was so hard that she and fellow conservator Chelsea Blake had to keep switching tools to get the rigid mortar and some corrosion out without causing any damage to the soft lead box.
Ridgeway explained that since the box was such an integral part of the monument’s history, it needed to be preserved as much as possible. “We recognize that that history is just as important as what is inside the box,” she said. “Conservation is a slow process.”
Howard was also skeptical, stating that as soon as he retrieved the box from the granite block he did not think it was the same one described in 1887 news accounts. “It wasn’t copper, and there was no inscription on it,” he said.
Ridgeway explained as she painstakingly pried at the lid mere centimeters at a time that it appeared to be folded over, then sealed with lead-based solder. This solder, along with the mortar and the corrosion, contributed to a process akin to watching paint dry.
At 3:15 p.m., the lid finally came off — and confirmed it wasn’t the time capsule we thought it was.
The 1889 book “The Huguenot Lovers: A Tale of the Old Dominion” by Collinson Pierrepont Edwards Burgwyn was removed from the Lee monument time capsule on Dec. 22. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Inside were three books, all wet from seepage. One of the books was an 1875 almanac. The other appears to be illustrations of water facility parts. The third was the 1889 book “The Huguenot Lovers: A Tale of the Old Dominion” by Collinson Pierrepont Edwards Burgwyn, the designer of the monument property. Inside the envelope was a photograph of monument stonemason James Netherwood, made by Virginia Artists Studio. There was also a silver 1887 British Victorian penny and an 1888 brochure also by Burgwyn titled “Civil Engineer of the Natural Advantages and Water Power Facilities of the City of Manchester and the County of Chesterfield with Accompanying Maps.”
No dead Lincoln.
The dates on the materials indicate this time capsule may have been a minor celebration of the pedestal reaching the construction’s halfway point, designed to commemorate the officials in charge of the massive project. In other words, an ego gratification capsule, done on the sly with no media exposure.
Neither the governor nor the DHR spoke of continuing efforts to retrieve the original 1887 capsule that was laid in a grand Masonic ceremony in Oct. 1887, if it is even there. Perhaps one day …
