A Kansas City museum took great caution when unveiling a century-old time capsule. On Oct. 16, the The National World War I Museum and Memorial held a ceremony to open up a time capsule that was entombed 100 years prior at the Liberty Memorial Tower.
Before the public event, museum staff unearthed and opened the time capsule, which was no easy feat. Staff had to drill inside of the wall—made of 18 inches of concrete and limestone—to retrieve the capsule, which had shifted a few inches over the century.
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When they got the capsule out of the wall, they didn’t immediately open it. Instead, staff called in the Kansas City Bomb Squad to assist. The move was a necessary one, as staff was aware that, contained in the capsule, was film from the time.
Back in those days, film was made with nitrate, which becomes flammable as it deteriorates over time. So flammable, in fact, that, when oxygen comes in contact with it, it can explode. The bomb squad did their job and nothing exploded, much to the curators delight.
Things only got better when they looked inside and found that nothing was damaged from water or mold.
What Was Inside the Time Capsule
Museum staff has always had a list of the contents of the capsule, which was set in its resting place during a 1924 ceremony that more than 150,000 people attended.
“At that ceremony, there were airplanes circling overhead, a band concert patriotic music. They even released doves,” Matthew Naylor, President and CEO, told the crowd on Wednesday. “There was colored smoke, and there was reading from the five allied commanders who had been here in 1921, and also from President Calvin Coolidge.”
Finally, 100 years later, Naylor noted, “We didn’t forget their sacrifice and we didn’t forget their intent for us to open this capsule and remember what happened.”
Inside, staff found 15 objects including newspapers, a Bible, an American declaration of war from 1917, seeds, and letters.
Also included were several things not on the list, such as promotional literature about Kansas City and signatures scratched inside the copper box. The museum has yet to identify to whom those signatures belong.
Everything went so well with the unveiling that the museum has decided to do the whole thing again. In two years, on what will be the museum’s 100th birthday, staff will bury another time capsule and leave behind instructions to open it in the year 2126. People can help determine what goes in the next time capsule by filling out a form on the museum’s website.
