The Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum in Philadelphia discovered what may be the missing third copy of the Confederate terms of surrender signed at Appomattox by Robert E. Lee in 1865. Where was it?
The Civil War &Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia has held the document since the early 20th century. It was pulled out of storage and re-evaluated as officials prepared for the museum’s shutdown Saturday ahead of its move to a new building.
Curator Andrew Coldren said he is certain that museum officials knew what they had when the document was donated but its significance was forgotten over time because of a lack of record keeping.
In a 1967 inventory,someone wrote “Copy??”in reference to the document.
Coldren said it had been glued to a cardboard backing and varnished,an apparent attempt to preserve it.
“Old photostat copies from the ’20s and ’30s are shiny like that,so this is why you’d think this is not a real document,”he said.
Coldren said museum officials examining the document recently noticed that the indentation of pens into the paper was visible. He said they also noticed that the ink on the document was darker and lighter in places,as would be expected with the pens used at the time. The lines on a photostat would be of consistent darkness.
Read the full AP article here.
Some quick thoughts:
This reminded me of the recent posts at Hanging Together and Archives Next addressing the topic “What are archives good for?”To play devil’s advocate for just a moment,what is the value of this document,particularly in it’s current state? Evidential? Informational? Intrinsic?