The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee being removed from its pedestal.Photo: Bob Brown - Pool/Getty
The search for a more thancentury-old time capsulethat was said to be buried underneath a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, has been called off after crews were unable to find it following the sculpture’s removal.
According to theAssociated Press, the workers spent 12 hours on Thursday trying to find the time capsule, which is believed to have been buried in the statue’s granite pedestal in 1887.
Earlier this month, Virginia’s Supreme Court ruledunanimouslythat the graffiti-covered Lee statue could be removed from its spot in the state’s capital. Gov. Ralph Northam first announced plans to remove the statue in June 2020 after protests following the death ofGeorge Floydsparked around the country, theAPsaid.
Officials plan to install a new capsule in a cornerstone of the pedestal where the statue once stood, and pack it with artifacts representing the changes Virginia has gone through since 2020.
Workers removing statue at the Robert E. Lee Memorial.Alex Wong/Getty
Some of theitems included in the new capsuleare an expired vial of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, a Black Lives Matter sticker, a Pride pin, and aphotograph of a Black ballerinastanding in front of the now-removed statue with her fist raised in the air.
“Disappointed not to find the time capsule,” Northam’s Chief of Staff Clark Mercer said following the end of the hunt for the original capsule. “The new time capsule will be put back in tomorrow and we’ll regroup with the contractors, putting the pedestal back together to clean up the circle and moving forward.”
“All the literature and documentation, we looked exactly — took all the clues and looked exactly where we thought it would be and it wasn’t there,” he added. “You can see that’s a pretty large piece of concrete to keep looking through and so, we looked where we thought it was and — doesn’t preclude in the future from finding it — but for right now the mystery will continue.”
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As for what may have been inside the missing capsule, historical records have proposed that the capsule holds around 60 objects, “many of which are believed to be related to the Confederacy,” according to apress releasefrom Northam.
Among the memorabilia, officials believed they would find a collection of Confederate buttons as well as a “picture of Lincoln lying in his coffin,” according toTIME. However, historian and Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer previously told theAPthat the image is more likely to be a lithographic print of the former president lying in state or a sketch.
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source: people.com
