After nearly five hours of meticulous watching and stirring, it was time on Wednesday 22nd afternoon for Governor Ralph Northam to open the lid of a time capsule that was hidden under a statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, since 1887.
Kate Ridgway’s hands, one of the conservatives who performed the examination, had started to blister. “No pressure,” she told Northam.
Inside, they found unexpected and seemingly random objects: an 1875 almanac, a water-soaked fiction book, a British coin, a catalogue, a letter, and a photograph of James Netherwood, a master mason who worked on the plinth of Robert E .Lee.
“We still don’t understand why these objects were put in the box,” said Julie Langan, director of the Virginia Department of Historical Resources. “It’s a weird set.”
The time capsule was recovered last week by historians, who had not found it in September, when the statue was removed. They discussed over the weekend how they could gently remove the container from the 700-kilogram granite block in which it was embedded.
But after an X-ray and careful grinding with special saws and chisels, the removal process was over.
The time capsule, however, was not the one coveted so often described in newspaper reports from 1887 that it would have been placed under the same statue and rumored to contain a rare photo of Abraham Lincoln in the coffin, Langan said.
“The question remains: what happened to that one?” she said.
Even the governor seemed fascinated by the mystery, posting numerous comments on Twitter about the opening.
When Chelsea Blake, conservator of the historical resources body, deftly removed a cloth envelope from the lid of the container, Northam turned to her and asked, raising his eyebrows, “Would that be the picture?”
Was not.
Some state officials watched the entire five-hour operation.
“It was really amazing,” Langan said. She added that “it felt like I was having guests at home, all those people. It was fun.”
The time capsule they anticipated finding may have been removed or stolen at some point without registration, or never installed, according to Langan.
“I think some people might be a little disappointed, but it seems like most are very involved and intrigued by this time capsule, wondering what it means,” she said. “It’s an enigma.”
Since one of the items found in the capsule was a photo of the mason, Langan said, the answer could be that some of the workers got together and placed some personal mementos on the statue for posterity.
Items will be treated and stabilized this week to prevent spoilage. They will likely be placed in a museum after researchers try to answer some questions surrounding the capsule, including why the fictional book “The Huguenot Lovers: A Tale of the Old Dominion” by Collinson Pierrepont Edwards Burgwyn, was placed inside. And why the British currency?
“I’m not disappointed with what happened today,” Langan said, “because it was really wonderful to see people so interested in the story.”
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