Two steamer trunks full of travel journals, family photographs and letters belonging to Robert E. Lee's oldest daughter have been found in an Alexandria bank vault.
The discovery could give historians new insight into one of Virginia's most prominent families.
"You can't help but get excited that what we'll find in these trunks could ultimately change scholars' interpretation relating to this family," says Charles F. Bryan Jr., president of the Virginia Historical Society.
The trunks, which sat in the vault for at least 84 years, are believed to have accompanied Mary Custis Lee, the last surviving child of the great Confederate commander, on her trips abroad from 1870 until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
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