And then the secretary 1864. Of war set aside 200 acres to become a national cemetery. By the end of the civil war there were 15,000 union and confederate soldiers buried here and general john logan. Established Decoration Day, she which he declared may 30 of every year. The idea that was throughout the country people would visit the graves and place flowers. Decoration day became a more memorial day. It became so popular that in 1873, quartermaster general Montgomery Meigs designed Decoration Day ceremonies. In time that became such a small venue, because every year thousands of people would show up to arlington. One year we found that 25,000 showed up to decorate the graves. 1913 congress authorized this moria memorial we are standing in. In 1950 as part of the laying of the cornerstone, this memorabilia box was placed by woodrow wilson. He laid the first stone which now brings us to the memorabilia box and its history. Ms. Smith when the memorial amphitheater began construction in 1915, construction dragged on for about five years. The amphitheater was actually dedicated in 1920. The building has largely been the same for 100 years. But there has been overtime several modifications. One of the largest was in the 1970s as the viewing of the changing of the guard and tomb of the unknown became so popular. The steps in the plaza were expanded. When that expanded, the steps covered up the original cornerstone. So, in the 1970s a new false cavity and false cornerstone was added to the building. At that time, the memorabilia box was removed from the building during construction. It temporarily went to the national archives. It was there for about a year. It was then given back to the cemetery and stored. It was not until the 1990s that the box was put back into the building itself. There was other construction going on. They took the opportunity to place the box back into the building. Then it wasnt revealed again until this year, 2020, when we were celebrating the anniversary of the amphitheaters construction. We took the box out in april. Just before the anniversary. Because with the covid19 situation, the pandemic, the cemetery wanted to make sure that we had the opportunity to let the public see the opening of the box. So, in preparation for the anniversary were doing an online exhibit. We opened the box in april. By may we had the online exhibit available to the general public. My role in opening the box was that i was one of a large team of staff. Our historian, tim frank, really took the lead. Hes the one who did a lot of the research into the memorabilia box, what was in it, what it was constructed of. I assisted with the opening of the cornerstone first. And then once we had extracted cornerstone wehe brought it here, into the chapel. We created a clean space. And the team of the historian, myself, maintenance, our videographer, our photographer, they were all there to document the opening to make sure that we had those records for posterity. We created a clean space in the chapel. And we carefully opened the memorabilia box. So thanks to tims research we have some idea of what would be inside the memorabilia box but there were some unknowns. The bucs was, as expected, copper. Thats what you see in front of me. This is actually the outer box. This is all we knew. Tim had taken this box to our Welcome Center and our xray machine to see if he could find out whats inside. We had some idea of where the objects were but we were really not certain. When i began opening the box i began with a series of holes that i drilled into one of the corners. And we gradually opened a larger whole until we could insert a borescope into the box and see what was inside. Once we put that inside, we realized there was a second copper box. And we were relieved to find everything appeared to be in Good Condition inside. Knowing that there were no historical objects in the way, we went ahead and move forward with cutting open the outer box. We began mostly with aviation snips along the edge, along what was the original solder line. Those boxes are very well constructed. They are out of copper fodder on the corners. There is a lip where the lid sits inside. We cut along the line of the. Older we were able to pry open the lid, open it up with pliers, and reveal the box inside. We did find that there was a little bit of moisture. The seals had opened up a bit. But there was no pulling, no major damage. There was some plateglass inside. We believed there to be glass inside, we just did not know how much. What we found were little glass spacers. These were to give space between the boxes. There were also some metal straps holding the box inside. We removed the glass, we removed the stress the straps, and while i held the inner box, pulling out the inner box. This was in slightly better the seal had held up to a shape. Greater degree. For this when we took extra care. We started cutting with stainless steel blades and saws along the solder line. We opened one corner first, so that we could again stick the aura scope in. We wanted to make sure we were not going to get into any of the objects. We opened up a corner. First look, everything looked great. Everything looked dry. There was no major signs of damage. We could see everything had bottom and we could cut the top off. So we continued cutting with stainless steel blades. And eventually we did use a metal cutoff wheel on a rotary tool to cut along the solder line and remove the lid. With that, tim and i were the first to see these objects and 105 years. Relief, the inner box had held up and everything was dry, colorful. No signs of insect damage or any real degradation. Thats when we began the process of carefully pulling up pulling everything out. It took about 2. 5 hours to carefully open the two copper boxes. After that we spent an additional hour carefully removing each historical object and placing it into archival containers and having ourselves documenthotographer carefully the condition of each object before we unwrapped and started revealing them. Howof the surprises was good of condition everything was in. There were so many things that could have gone wrong they box like this. I have to say, throughout the process of caitlin opening the box, i thought my chest was going to explode. I just did not know what the contents would be. What they would look like. There, but, was in like caitlin said, all sorts of things could have gone wrong with water damage. At some point some but he said, is that water at the bottom of the box . I almost fell over. So when caitlin finished cutting the lid of the inside box and peeled and she peeled back the lid, the first thing that struck me was the condition and care that they took to put these items in a late 1915. Just about everything was wrapped in tissue or wax paper. The flag was rolled up and tied carefully. Everything looked like it went in yesterday. That is what struck me. I could not wait to get in and unwrap each item. Four historian, it is a onceinalifetime experience. The first items we took out where the plate glass. We really were not sure, the way the newspaper articles described it at the time it sounded like there was plateglass all away all the way around the inner box. These metal bands were there to hold it out so we took this out we took the box out. The first item was placed on the outer box. It is a metal plate with the names of all the members of the memorial Amphitheater Commission. And this was on the outer box. Thats really the first artifact that we took off and conserved. When we opened the box we started seeing what was important to them. We saw an advanced copy of the program for the laying of the cornerstone. They would have sealed all of this up the day before. We found coins and stamps that were in circulation. At the time, colonel William Hartz is buried here, he retired as brigadier general. He was a disbursement officer of the commission, and so he contributed some coins. The post office contributed stamps. There was a boyd city directory from 1915. And it is interesting, it is kind of like the yellow pages today. Advertisers could place their advertisement on the spine or the edge on the front or back covers. We had an official program from the grand army of the republic encampment that had just taken place. On october 2, 1915. A lot of the civil war veterans stayed in town for the laying of the cornerstone, this was the inspiration of the civil war veterans. Judge ivory in particular is buried at the cemetery. There was a copy of the declaration of independence. A copy of the constitution. It was before prohibition and before women had the right to vote. There was a flag that happened to be 46 stars, instead of theres a congressional 48. Directory and there were some congressional hearings on the memorial amphitheater. President wilson presented an autographed photograph of himself. Memorial Amphitheater Commission had added a confederate veteran in the public buildings act of 1915. His contribution was a list of confederate dead. Ms. Smith the architect was thomas hastings. The architect donated several items to the memorabilia box. For one, he donated the early plans. These are little too brittle to unfold. They were wrapped in red tape, thats where the term comes from, with records being wrapped in it is really string. And he included a wrapper which went with the plan. We have images of the original drawings, which showed the original structure looks different. It went through several iterations with a smaller reception building, only one story instead of two, a sculpture on the plaza. This is before the tomb of the unknown. Some things did stay the same. This open arcade, the greek plan. This very grand style, which was the height of style in the 20s. The building is meant to look like a greek amphitheater in the beaux arts style. It has the mask of the main, commemorating the latest war america had suffered through. The architects also included a bible. His father was a presbyterian clergymen and his grandfather wrote hymns, so its maybe unsurprising that he donated this bible. Inside is his signature. On october 1, hastings donated this bible. It is marked. We are not sure why. To the book of joshua. Right before the memorabilia box was put together and sealed, someones job was to run into d. C. And grab the four major papers from the day before. The papers are all dated october 12. The memorabilia box was installed on october 13. This is a great snapshot what was on everybodys mind when the box was put in place. Only one of these four papers still exists. That would be the post. The others were subsumed by it or, when they went under, the post bought their equipment. It is a great snapshot. The headlines are still things we talk about today. , remember when the copy of the constitution was put in the box . There were a few amendments missing. We just celebrated the anniversary of the 19th amendment. You have suffragists stirring up trouble all over the news. You have got wilsons impending wedding being covered. Remember, at this point we have not yet entered the war. Once we entered world war i, the construction of this building really slows down and impacts it in a wide variety of ways. The nation is dramatically changed. There is hence of the war to come, but obviously america has not entered the war. So you will see headlines related to bulgarians begin attack on serbia, and other references to fighting overseas. Mr. Frank it kind of like a boyd city directory with everybody trying to vie for attention on the covers and spines. And tobacco shop owner stamped his add on the edge. I could picture some army officer buying newspapers on newspapers for the memorabilia box. He was located on pennsylvania avenue. When i look through these newspapers i see that, the more things change, the more they stay the same. We have the world series sports news. At that time there was an anthrax scare. So, hope for life in the new serum. The Agriculture Department comes to rescue quickly. We have, the fight is on to close the bar at army navy club. Attack inians begin serbia. Wilson seeks ways to finance defense. It is just amazing. Read these, and also the condition they were in. They really did take great care in making sure that we were here to open this and not pull out a box of shredded memorabilia. For is lafonds plan washington, d. C. He is buried in arlington, overlooking the city that he designed. This is the map of the system of highways for the district of columbia. It was dated 1914. You will notice that the arlington reservation is right here fort meyer is right here. One of the items not on the inventory but that we knew was here is a list of confederate dead. People ask me why is this list included . 1915 was the 50th anniversary of the civil war. And you had these veterans reconciling. There was a big push to reconcile between the north and the south, and arlington was that centerpiece of the reconciliation. The public buildings act of the 1950s added a confederate. He placed the list of confederate dead as the union their program. Another thing i point out is that, if you look at the original drawings, there was a statue planned. But all of that went by the wayside in november of 1920. Months after this building was dedicated. The british and french entered their soldiers from world war i. People write about the ceremonies in london and paris. In particular, there was a fullpage article in a newspaper describing a warriors funeral in london. Lords and ladies were present, Victoria Cross recipients were present, and veterans from all over the world had attaches that attended. So they started writing to congress and the War Department saying, we should honor an unknown soldier. So the unknown american soldier was buried here in arlington where that statue would have been. There was a personal attachment another reason i could not wait to get into the box was because of the boyd city directory. And actually had my grandfather listed in there, robert defrank, clerk, district of columbia. He worked for the d. C. Government. I was looking at the franks and the lansdales and harringtons and other family members that were here in d. C. At the time. But not mysdales, great grandparents on my grandmother side. I did find my great grandfather, robert frank listed. Robert, clerk, district, 607 columbia road, northwest. When the original memorabilia box came back from the archives it was placed in a safe. , he990 the superintendent was in the 82nd airborne in world war ii. He made the determine determination that it was time to put it back in the amphitheater. He grabbed the peter pan Peanut Butter jar and theyll place their business cards in the jar and those who participated placed their business cards in the jar and put some coins in then theyer, and sealed up the replica cornerstone. We do plan to put a memorabilia box in the replica cornerstone to be opened in 2120 by the employees of Arlington National cemetery. It is going to include a declaration of independence and a copy of the constitution provided by the national archives. The tim guards are going to provide their identification badge. The Arlington Ladies will provide a letter. We want all of those who have a hand in Arlington National cemetery we are an active cemetery, so we want everyone who plays a part in that to have a role in this new memorabilia box. Ms. Smith our new memorabilia box or time capsule will be of slightly different material. We will go with something that represents our time. We are going with a stainless steel box. Instead of soldering it closed it will have a sealed gap. We will also have some modern decoration. This box had a bronze plaque on top. Youre going to have laser engraving on our lid with the seal. And the year to be opened. We are going to use slightly different technology, hopefully, to try to keep the condition in our box supportive for the object. We are going to try to get the temperature and humidity right, and dry out the environment. Were going to try to remove some of the oxygen, put desiccant and absorbers in there. We may even flush out some of the oxygen. We are going to also wrap our objects like they did for the original memorabilia box. But original memorabilia box, but ours are going to be more modern. Archival materials, corrosion inhibitors, and separation between our objects. So, a similar idea, but with more modern materials. I think a lot of the objects placed in the box are not necessarily unique or highvalue. They were what the members of the committee felt represented their time best. So, you know, there is no secret treasure in the box. I think what it shows is, how people felt about themselves at the time. What they wanted to be remembered for. What they felt they were part of something important that they felt they were a part of something important and thats the same urge that we feel today to throw together something that represents us. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] are watching American History tv. Covering history, cspan style with event coverage, archival films, lectures, and visits to museums and historic places. All weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. Today on the civil war, caroline wardnewhall, a fellow at the Virginia Center for civil war studies, discusses her research on black prisoners of war in the confederacy. He is a preview. What i realized was that freeman had been the most visible group of black pows, they are a minority. Several hundred men who were freeman from the north were contained in prisons like andersonville and charleston, what thousands of men who had been formally enslaved were also held captive and survived and were subjected to military enslavement, to sail, and reclamation. In part because the confederacys argued they still owed labor. Changedndition had not with their entry into u. S. Territory. They are basically building on precedent set by fugitive slave act of 1850 and negating this idea that the uniform of the u. S. Army conferred any kind of standing for these men. Has beenof my research to follow the paths of these men who entered into prisons fully briefly, and exited again. What happened to these men who were removed from the side of the United States . Who are removed from the uniforms and returned to the enslaved population . Slaveryo reiterate and practices of slavery carried over to the war. There was a lot of consistency and how the confederacy approached their treatment of black prisoners. Use theironers of war knowledge of enslavement to thest and operate within circumstances of captivity.