Ridgway Returns to UMW Faculty, Edits and Authors a Chapter of Book on Monument Avenue Time Capsule

Katherine Ridgway is returning to UMW this fall as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Historic Preservation. She recently co-authored the book, The Buried Cause, which chronicles the recovery and analysis of a copper box time capsule buried beneath the Robert E. Lee statue on Richmond’s Monument Avenue.

Ridgway edited a book on the recovery and analysis of a time capsule buried beneath a statue in Richmond.

Katherine Ridgway is returning to UMW this fall as an adjunct instructor.

Katherine Ridgway, State Archaeological Conservator at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, is returning to UMW this fall as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Historic Preservation.

Ridgway recently edited and wrote a chapter of The Buried Cause: Unearthing Hidden History in the Lee Monument Cornerstone (University of Virginia Press, 2024), a book that chronicles the recovery and analysis of a copper box time capsule buried beneath the Robert E. Lee statue on Richmond’s Monument Avenue. Discovered and opened in 2021, the capsule contained artifacts from 1887 that shed new light on Civil War memory, monument culture, and the politics of public history. The book explores the material and cultural significance of these objects and the public’s reaction to their unveiling.