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On Monday, the base of the Calhoun monument is slated to be removed and people are excited about finding a possible time capsule. So here is a thread about the Calhoun Monument's base and what is likely to be found.
A Cornerstone of the original base was laid in 1858 (and then presumably sat there for 30 years before they got around to finishing it) and in it was a "time capsule." The box wasn't meant to be opened in 100 years. It was meant to lend historical legitimacy to the monument 1/
And it's contents are largely boring but tied Calhoun to the founding fathers. Some recent news reports seem confused about what might be in it and how we know what was in it, but these 1858 reports tell us what is most likely to be found. 2/
A cannonball from the revolutionary war (likely rusty now). A banner from Calhoun's funeral (likely rotten now).
Papers listing people's names (likely a soggy mess now)
A lock of Calhoun's hair (let's not try the Jurassic Park treatment please).
A copy of his last speech...3/
Papers listing people's names (likely a soggy mess now)
A lock of Calhoun's hair (let's not try the Jurassic Park treatment please).
A copy of his last speech...3/
There were also likely some coins in it. The banner was in a case of some sort so it could have survived better than some aspects but I wouldn't bet on it. I hope I am wrong but in 1889 a similar corner stone was opened and everything was turned to dust except coins & a plate 4/
Here's where it gets fun. The placing of the stone wasn't permanent. A few weeks after the 1858 dedication, the marble box, now sealed in a solid cube of brickwork, was moved from where it was dedicated to where it belonged. The @CityCharleston might want to look for bricks.5/
So for the next 30 years this bricked up box seems to have sat in the corner of the square soaking up water and sitting out in Charleston humidity. It seems unlikely a seal survived. It was exposed for multiple hurricanes before it was presumably sealed up in the new stone base 6
I am not an expert in preservation or material culture or archival storage but I am not betting money on it surviving. A similar "time capsule" in Raleigh placed much later didn't fair well 7 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article243963407.html
The Raleigh one claimed to have a button that belonged to Lee and a lock of hair. So you can see that these were in many ways reliquaries for white southerner's civil religion: the Lost Cause. 8 . https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/us/confederate-monument-robert-lee-north-carolina.html
