A collection papers found Monday beneath Rochester’s Frederick Douglass monument resemble "a heap of wet pulp," said city historian Christine Ridarsky.

“But sometimes professional conservators can work magic,” she said.

That is the hope, anyway.

The papers were inside a metal time capsule that had been placed in a cutout in the monument's cornerstone. The capsule was revealed when the 8-foot bronze Douglass statue and its 9-foot blue granite pedestal were moved within Highland Park.

On Friday morning, a conservator will examine the water-damaged materials and give Ridarsky an idea of whether they can be salvaged, possibly for public display, and what the restoration process would involve.

The capsule dates back to 1899, when the Douglass statue — which portrays the abolitionist speaking in Rochester in 1863 not long after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation — originally was installed at St. Paul Street and Central Avenue. It is likely that materials were added to the capsule when the monument was moved to Highland Bowl in 1941, Ridarsky said.

If historical records are accurate, she said, the contents include two leaflets from Susan B. Anthony, who was alive at the time of the monument’s original dedication; a copy of the Declaration of Sentiments, an 1848 document penned by Elizabeth Cady Stanton demanding equality for women; a road map of Monroe County; the 1856 book Slavery Unmasked; and a letter from the government of Haiti, which contributed $1,000 (around $31,000 in today’s dollars) toward the statue's cost.

It will be up to the conservator to confirm that, she said, adding that the capsule is now at the Monroe County Parks Department office and that her office didn’t want to “take the chance that we disturb it in anyway until it’s accessed.”

Meanwhile, work continues on Frederick Douglass Memorial Plaza in Highland Park at South Avenue and Robinson Drive, the centerpiece of which is the relocated Douglass monument.

MGREENWO@Gannett.com