Today, we are happy to bring you our conversation with Katherine Ridgway, coeditor, with Christina Keyser Vida and Elizabeth Moore, of The Buried Cause: Unearthing Hidden History in the Lee Monument Cornerstone

What inspired you to write this book? 

One of our goals at the Department of Historic Resources is to educate people about the history of the Commonwealth. The Confederate monuments that were removed from Monument Avenue have a complicated and often misunderstood history. Working with experts from across Virginia, we used the opportunity presented by the boxes found under the Lee monument to tell the stories of the artifacts that went into those boxes under the monument, the people who put them there, and the larger story of Richmond during and after the Civil War. We could not pass by this amazing opportunity to tell the stories that have been hidden under Monument Avenue for over 130 years.

Opening the boxes on a live stream guaranteed we would have questions and comments from the public. Some of these comments implied that we would hide, or even destroy, the artifacts found under the Monument. We wanted to allay those fears and find a way to make the artifacts as available as possible. We started by creating a blog series entitled Cornerstone Contributions featuring most of the authors who wrote chapters for this book. The success of the blog led directly to The Buried Cause.

What did you learn and what are you hoping readers will learn from your book? 

I learned a great deal. I am an archaeological conservator and work with artifacts in my lab, but I don’t always know the detailed history of what I’m working on. Despite being a native Virginian, the intricacies of the Civil War are not something with which I am familiar. I certainly didn’t realize that the economics of the South and the realities of making sure armies get what they need to function could be so interesting.

Humanizing history is so important. It can feel like the past is just a bunch of dates and events, but this book tries to show the people involved with the Lee Monument and the stories behind what was found underneath it. I hope the reader walks away with a better understanding of the social mechanisms that led to Monument Avenue’s creation and dismantling, the difference between a cornerstone box and a time capsule, and the people and stories behind the artifacts found underneath the Lee monument.

What surprised you the most in the process of writing your book? 

As a part of the process of creating this manuscript, one of my jobs was to identify images that would compliment the works of the authors. In many cases, this proved very easy. Images of the artifacts had already been taken by Leslie Straub and pictures of historic people and places were relatively easy to find. The only chapter I struggled to find images for was Where Are the Women? by Dr. Caroline Janney.

Knowing the huge part that women played in raising money for monuments across the Commonwealth and for the Lee monument in particular, I was flabbergasted that I could not find one image of Sarah Randolph (leader of the Ladies’ Lee Monument Committee) in the digital collections of the Library of Congress, the National Archives, or the Library of Virginia. The men, who had lackluster success with fundraising for the Lee monument, were well represented in these collections, but I did not want to include images in this chapter of the men who did their best to hide the accomplishments of the women. As a result, the readers will see no images in this chapter.

What’s your favorite anecdote from your book?

My colleague, Bob Jolley, wrote about raising money for the Confederacy by selling bonds. I thought it was fascinating that the first Confederate bonds were printed in New York by the American Bank Note Company, before the war had even started! Did no one at the printers wonder about a bond that likely said “The Confederate States of America” on it? Did they think it was a weird request?

I also found the stories of “witness trees” and the carvings of soldiers written about by Laura Galke and Lea Lane very interesting. The idea of soldiers whittling keepsakes and mementos out of trees that had been exploded by artillery all around them is very poignant. Two such mementos included in the cornerstone box were carved from a tree that grew beside General Stonewall Jackson’s grave. As an avid gardener and a person who teaches about cemetery preservation, I was surprised to learn that this tree was a Princess tree, which is a common invasive species in Virginia. The idea that invasive species were an issue in Virginia in the 1800s and disturbed graves then and now was so interesting to me.

What’s next? 

While I still occasionally work with monuments, one of the unexpected results of the publicity surrounding the boxes under the Lee monument is that I am now considered a time capsule expert. I have had numerous inquiries about opening time capsules and asking for advice on the creation of new ones. To date, I’ve helped with about twenty time capsules and cornerstone boxes and have had a great time doing so. I find time capsules, and the personal stories held within them, very compelling.

I will also get back to my work at DHR. With the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War on the horizon, we are expecting to have more requests from museums and institutions for artifacts from our collections for exhibition and research. One of my roles at DHR is to make sure these artifacts are stable enough to go out on loan. I will also continue to answer questions from the public and professionals about the preservation of artifacts in an effort to make sure that Virginia’s public and private collections are well taken care of for posterity.