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Vol. 30:4 ISSN 0160-8460 December 2002
From Dusty Basements and Vaults- Literally
by Roger A. Bruns, Acting Executive Director
We at the NHPRC are constantly amazed at the stories of historical records unearthed from unexpected places, saved from the ravages of time and accident. Over the years, individuals and institutions have sought our advice and assistance for preserving materials that had suddenly turned up in basements and attics, in abandoned buildings and vaults, and in family trunks. All of the evidence is certainly not in for any period of American history, as the Commission knows firsthand. But what a month November 2002 has been for historical discoveries!
First, there was the story from the United States Senate. On November 19, as the Senate passed the homeland security bill, two staff members tramping around a subbasement area beneath the Capitol's East Front steps, an area that will be demolished before construction begins on the Capitol Visitors Center, happened across a volume bound in canvas that looked quite old. Stamped in gold on the spine of the volume were these words: "Senators Compensation and Mileage." Amidst debris and rubble, all scheduled for the dumpster 2 days later, the staffers thumbed through the pages of carefully penned entries. They quickly noticed signatures of some recognizable luminaries— John Adams, Aaron Burr, and Thomas Jefferson.
Soon, Senate Historian Richard Baker examined the volume. Later, at a press conference, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle displayed the volume to reporters. According to Baker and others, the volume may be the only single document containing the signatures of Adams, Jefferson, and Burr. They had signed the volume because they all were vice presidents and, therefore, presidents of the Senate, and had to approve senators' pay and mileage reimbursements. "It is, literally, priceless," Daschle said. "It came within a whisker of being totally destroyed."
And then there was the story from Alexandria, Virginia.
Mary Custis Lee, the eldest daughter of Robert E. Lee, was, according to all accounts, a bold, if not irresponsible, nonconformist. Anne Carter Zimmer, a family descendant who interviewed elderly family members, wrote, "She went where she wanted, when she wanted to." Even during the Civil War, when other members of the family continually retreated behind friendly lines, Mary stayed at a family plantation. When Jeb Stuart sent soldiers to rescue her, she refused to be rescued.
Mary Lee spent much of her life travelling abroad. During a visit to Istanbul, Lee reportedly wanted to visit the Hagia Sophia mosque. Disguising herself as both a Muslim and a man, she made the visit, risking death for being either an infidel or a woman or both.
During her travels, Mary Lee used a bank in Alexandria as one of her mailing addresses. Recently, a descendant researching the life of his great-great aunt wrote to the bank after he came across information that her luggage was put in a bank vault at the time of her death on November 22, 1918.
Bank officials undertook a search. In the bank's "silver vault,"; where it stores items too bulky for safe-deposit boxes, they found two trunks. "They were dusty. They were in a corner," said one bank official. "On the inventory, they were carried as two trunks. We didn't have a name." But he saw that one of them was stenciled on the side with "M. Lee."
The trunks, stuffed with personal letters, newspapers, and other assorted items, have now been placed on loan with the Virginia Historical Society. Charles F. Bryan, Jr., the Society's president, said "We're just stunned by this find. . . . It will take 2 or 3 years for our archivists to process and preserve the collection," he said. But when their work is finished we will have new insights into the life of Mary Lee and her famous father.
No, the historical evidence, even for the early years, is not all in by any means. History is sometimes dusty but always evolving.
