Lectures on the Lawn: Katherine Ridgway “Revolutionary Relics: Unearthing the Stories in Richmond’s Lee Monument Cornerstone
Mechanicsville, VA 23116
The Rural Plains Foundation and the National Park Service are pleased to an-nounce the 2025 “Lectures on the Lawn” series for 2025. Join us on three consecutive Thursday evenings in June at the Shelton House in Hanover County, part of the Totopoptomy Creek Battlefield unit of Richmond National Battlefield Park.
Katherine Ridgway: “Revolutionary Relics: Unearthing the Stories in Richmond’s Lee Monument Cornerstone”
In 2021, conservators unearthed a copper cornerstone box, and another lead box, buried for 134 years beneath Richmond’s Robert E. Lee monument. Katherine Ridgway of the Virginia Department of Historical Resources will talk about the removal of the monument, the opening of the two boxes, and the Commonwealth’s work to preserve the arti-facts as well as inform the public about the stories both found in the boxes…and the stories left out.
Katherine is Chief Archaeological Conservator for the DHR, following previous positions with the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
The lectures begin at 6:30 on the lawn in front of the Shelton House at Rural Plains, located at 7273 Studley Road. They are free and open to the public - picnic suppers are encouraged! (Rain location: Enon United Methodist Church, 6156 Studley Road)
