Virginia teams ended a one-day search on Thursday after they were unable to locate a 134-year-old time capsule, according to state officials, who are buried on the pedestal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee which dominated Richmond for over a century. .
State officials had planned to remove the 134-year-old time capsule from the cornerstone a day after the large Confederate statue was withdrawn. But after removing more than half a dozen large, heavy stones, the crew could not find her.
Workers used ground penetration radar devices, a metal detector and other construction equipment to try to locate the copper-time capsule they believed was tucked inside or under a cornerstone of a 40-foot granite pedestal. the height that Lee’s bronze equestrian statue had placed. since 1890.
The statue rose from its pedestal on Wednesday, more than a year after Gov. Ralph Northam ordered its withdrawal in June 2020 after protests erupted over racism and police brutality across the country after the police assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year.
JAY PAUL / REUTERS
Although the removal of the statue was quick and fluid, the search for the time capsule was marked by difficulties and frustrations. The crew had to remove three separate pieces of the cornerstone that weighed between 500 and 8,000 pounds each. They also removed half a dozen large stones around the perimeter of the pedestal so they could search under the cornerstone and the area around it.
After about 12 hours of work, the crews finished the day’s search, said Clark Mercer, Northam’s chief of staff. Mercer said workers planned to return on Friday to reposition the stones they removed and insert a new time capsule into the cornerstone. He said it was doubtful that workers would look for the 1887 time capsule again, but he left a small possibility open.
“It’s disappointing not to find the time capsule,” he said.
“We looked at where we thought he was. It doesn’t stop us from (in the future) finding him, 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 is sure the capsule is somewhere on the pedestal, citing an account in the diary of an 1887 dedication ceremony. which attracted thousands of people.
“I’m sure there’s some capsule somewhere,” he said. “We just can’t find where.”
An 1887 newspaper article suggests that the copper-time capsule contains mostly souvenirs, including a U.S. silver dollar and a collection of Confederate buttons. But one line of this article has aroused the interest of historians. Among the artifacts is an “image of Lincoln lying in the coffin.”
It’s unclear what type of photography this is, but the article says it was donated by “Miss Pattie Leake,” who was a director of a prominent local family.
Harold Holzer, a Lincoln historian and scholar, told The Associated Press earlier this year that he believes it is highly doubtful that the image is a real photograph of Lincoln in his coffin because the only known photo of Lincoln at death was taken by photographer Jeremiah Gurney at City Hall. in New York on April 24, 1865.
Holzer said it is more likely to be a popular lithographic engraving of Lincoln’s Currier & Ives that was in New York State or a sketch made by someone who could have witnessed Lincoln’s body. during a two-week tour where the president’s body was taken before his burial. in Springfield, Illinois.
Lee’s statue was one of five huge Confederate tributes along Richmond’s Monument Avenue and the only one that belonged to the state. He four city-owned statues were demolished last summer, but the removal of the statue of Lee was blocked by two lawsuits until sentence of the Supreme Court of Virginia last week paved the way for him to retire on Wednesday.