Crews End Day of Search for 1887 Lee Statue Time Capsule

RICHMOND, Virginia – Crews in Virginia ended a day’s search Thursday after being unable to locate a 134-year-old time capsule that state officials believe is buried in the pedestal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee who had dominated Richmond for over a century.

State officials were to remove the 1887 time capsule from the pedestal a day after the massive statue was taken down. But after removing more than half a dozen large, heavy stones, the crews couldn’t find him.

Workers used ground-penetrating radars, a metal detector and other construction equipment to attempt to locate the copper time capsule they believed to be nestled inside or under the cornerstone of a plinth. 12-meter tall granite that the bronze equestrian statue of Lee had perched since 1890.

The statue was hoisted from its pedestal on Wednesday, more than a year after Governor Ralph Northam ordered its removal in June 2020 after protests against racism and police brutality erupted across the country following George’s murder Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

While the statue’s removal went smoothly and swiftly, the search for the time capsule was marred by difficulty and frustration. Crews had to remove three separate pieces of the cornerstone weighing between 500 and 8,000 pounds (225 and 3,620 kilograms) each. They also removed half a dozen other large stones around the perimeter of the pedestal so that they could dig under the cornerstone and the area around it.

After about 12 hours on the job, the teams ended their search for the day, Northam Chief of Staff Clark Mercer said. Mercer said workers plan to return on Friday to replace stones they removed and insert a new time capsule into the cornerstone. He said it was doubtful that workers would resume the search for the 1887 time capsule, but left open a small possibility.

“It’s disappointing not to find the time capsule,” he said.

“We looked at where we thought it was. This does not prevent us in the future from finding it, but for now the mystery will continue. “

Dale Brumfield, a local historian and author who has conducted extensive research on the time capsule, said he was sure the capsule was somewhere in the pedestal, citing a newspaper article about an 1887 dedication ceremony that attracted thousands of people.

“I’m sure there’s a capsule somewhere,” he said. “We just can’t find where. “

An 1887 newspaper article suggests that the copper time capsule contains mostly memorabilia, including a silver US dollar and a collection of Confederate buttons. But one line in this article has piqued the interest of historians. Among the artifacts is a “photo of Lincoln lying in his coffin”.

It is not known what type of image this is, but the article says it was donated by “Miss Pattie Leake,” who was a school principal from a prominent local family.

Harold Holzer, a Lincoln historian and scholar, told The Associated Press earlier this year that he thought it was highly doubtful the photo was an actual photograph of Lincoln in his coffin, as the only known photo of Lincoln death was taken by photographer Jeremiah Gurney at town hall. in New York on April 24, 1865.

Holzer said it was more likely to be a popular Currier & Ives lithograph of Lincoln lying in New York State or a sketch made by someone who may have witnessed the Lincoln’s body during a two-week tour where the president’s body was taken before his burial. in Springfield, Illinois.

The new time capsule to be placed on Friday contains material reflecting current events, including an expired vial of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, a Black Lives Matter sticker, and a photograph of a black ballerina with her fist raised near the statue of Lee during the protests in Richmond last summer.

The statue of Lee was one of five huge Confederate tributes along Monument Avenue in Richmond and the only state-owned one. The four city-owned statues were taken down last summer, but the removal of Lee’s statue has been blocked by two lawsuits until a Virginia Supreme Court ruling last week clears the way for its withdrawal on Wednesday.

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An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated that the pedestal is made of concrete instead of granite.