Workers find 121-year-old 'time capsule' at Jefferson Davis monument
February 17, 2022 | In the PressFrom MSN.com (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/workers-find-121-year-old-time-capsule-at-jefferson-davis-monument/ar-AATYBDi?li=BBnbcA1)
Masonry workers discovered what appears to be a 121-year-old time capsule on Wednesday as they were dismantling the remnants of a pedestal that once held a statue of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The Jefferson Davis monument on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, was pulled to the ground by protesters in 2020.
Crews have been working to remove the pedestals of the confederate statues that were taken down for the past month.
The apparent time capsule found this week is likely the third one recovered from the Confederate plinth on Monument Avenue, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
In December, a time capsule was found inside the former base of the Robert E. Lee statue when crews dismantled it.
There's also reported to be a time capsule beneath the Stonewall Jackson statue, which could be found in the coming days, the paper reported.
The copper box found Wednesday, and its contents, will be handed over to the Black History Museum, which will also receive all the Confederate statues, a spokesperson for Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney told the paper.
Dennis Duarte, a mason foreman for Connecticut-based Summit Masonry, has spent the past two weeks in Richmond dismantling the Confederate plinths.
Duarte told the paper that when he cut the box from the concrete, its lid swelled up like a bubble. He estimated the box weighed about 20-25 pounds.
According to newspaper records, the box is said to contain relics of the Civil War, masonic tradition and Richmond history, including: a 'Guide to Richmond, Va. and the Battle-fields' by Carlton McCarthy; a $100 Confederate note; the Daily Dispatch and Richmond Times newspapers and a 'polished chip of marble from the front step of the Jefferson Davis mansion,' now known as the White House of the Confederacy.
'These things are indicative of the Lost Cause mythology and how it had grown in the 30 years after the Civil War,' said Christina K. Vida, a curator for the Valentine Museum.
She added that the items represent the views of wealthy white people in the South and the opinions of Black Virginians weren't included.
Historical conservation experts in Virginia's capital opened a time capsule in December that was found in the remnants of a pedestal that once held a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, finding books, coins, ammunition, documents and dozens of other artifacts.
