A time capsule was found under a pedestal that once held a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Virginia. The capsule is the second one found this month, and experts opened it on Tuesday, finding books and ammunition inside.
The capsule was an aged copper box pulled from 10 feet under the monument site on Monday, marking the end of a long search for an elusive time capsule deposited in 1887, the Guardian reported.
On Monday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam tweeted after the box was excavated, saying, "They found it!"
Northam was the one who gave the order to remove the enormous equestrian statue of lee in 2020, following global protests against institutional racism sparked by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
The statue was then removed a year later, in September 2021, following a court clearing the way for it to be removed.
After finding the box, conservators were quick to open it to see what was inside as they had been searching for it since the statue removal.
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It was believed that a capsule was in the foundation of the pedestal, following news reports from the late 1800s detailing where it was placed. It was later confirmed following imaging tests. However, the search was unsuccessful when the statue was removed in September.
After Northam ordered the statue's pedestal also be removed, crews again searched for the artifact, and a time capsule was discovered shortly after.
Unfortunately, hours of examination suggested it was placed by someone else, not being the box they were looking for.
When the second capsule was found, State archeological conservator Kate Ridgeway got to work. She told WTVR that the box matches the description given in an old newspaper article that detailed what items are supposed to be inside it.
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X-rays of the box show that books, coins, buttons, and perhaps a type of civil war-era ammunition were inside, according to a news release.
When it was opened, Ridgeway and her team found a copy of “Harper’s Weekly” from 1865, a Masonic symbol and flag made of wood from the tree that was over Stonewall Jackson's grave, a piece of wood with a bullet in it, a Bible, confederate money, and several letters inside the capsule.
Some historical records had experts thinking a rare photo of Abraham Lincoln taken after his assassination may also be inside. One line of a newspaper article also listed among the contents a "picture of Lincoln lying in his coffin."
The capsule was packed with items, and because of damage suffered when water got into the box, conservators had to be careful to remove the items.
