POSTERITY of the Capsule John M. Hoenig, Ph.D. looks at some of the attempts to preserve the for the .

IT WAS ALL SET. Theodore Roosevelt have been forgotten or at least IV, great-grandson of US President lost. Burying time capsules is Teddy Roosevelt, would come to especially popular during centen- Portland, Oregon, for the 28 May nial and other celebrations, and 2003 celebration. It was 100 many capsules were created previously that President when the US celebrated its cen- Roosevelt buried a time cap- tennial and bicentennial, and sule — a copper box the size also when the new millen- of a microwave oven — at nium arrived. the construction site of a 40-foot monument to Contents explorers Lewis and Clark. There are no rules for There was only one prob- what goes in a time cap- lem — where exactly was sule. Local , the time capsule buried? photographs, membership A search of newspa- lists, and bylaws and con- pers from 1903 failed to stitutions are often disclose the precise loca- included, as well as sam- tion. In the end, the Oregon ples of locally made prod- Historical Society decided it ucts or crafts and other was too costly and disrup- items that reflect the . tive to tear up the grounds For example, according to the around the monument looking Minnesota Historical Society, for the box. the time capsule placed in the Aberdeen, Washington, fared cornerstone of the State Capitol in only slightly better. In July 2003, a 1898 contains: “the Holy Bible, the 94--old time capsule was first two volumes of the Min- opened. It had been laid in the nesota State Statutes, a history of cornerstone of the high school in Minnesota volunteers in the Civil 1909. The newspapers, photo- Part of an advertisement for War and many other books, graphs and booklets inside were a Westinghouse showing the speeches, newspapers, photo- mass of moldy “wet crud”. company’s time capsule which was graphs, engravings and copper buried 50-feet underground in 1938 at etchings.” Similarly, an 1873 time Origins the site of their exhibit at the New capsule buried in the cornerstone The idea of creating a storage con- York World’s Fair. of the new city hall in Rochester, tainer to preserve documents and nerstone but an article in the NY contained 350 items including artifacts for a future generation Washington Post indicates the cor- books, catalogues, photographs, dates back at least to medieval nerstone was a solid block that pamphlets, papers, pieces of times when such boxes were com- was lowered onto an engraved sil- parchment, currency, newspapers, monly placed in building corner- ver plate. Because the Capitol maps and medals. Inside one of stones. The practice was common building was extended and the books was a condom and on among Freemasons who devel- remodeled several times over the the wrapper was a notation that oped an elaborate ritual. Partici- years, the exact location of the the condom should not be pants would wear special garb original cornerstone is not known. included in the capsule. Evidently, including an apron, go through a The “time capsule” is someone disagreed and slipped it procession and make invocations, comparatively recent and was into the box anyway. anoint the cornerstone with wine, coined by the Westinghouse Com- For many years, the largest oil and (in America) corn. pany when it buried a seven-foot time capsule was the one on the George Washington was a long, torpedo-shaped time capsule grounds of Oglethorpe University Freemason and he performed the 50- feet under the grounds of the (New Zealand now has a larger Masonic ritual at the laying of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York one). Termed the “Crypt of Civi- cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol City. Instantly, a new term was lization”, the Oglethorpe capsule building in 1793. The International added to the English language. measures 20 x 10 x 10 feet and was Time Capsule Society, located at The International Time Cap- sealed in 1940. It contains thou- Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, sule Society estimates that there sands of items including Lincoln maintains that it is not known if are 10,000 time capsules in exis- Logs, a Donald Duck doll, dental there is anything inside this cor- tence, the vast majority of which floss, recordings and newsreels, History Magazine February/March 2005 — xx xx — History Magazine February/March 2005 POSTERITY including one of Adolf Hitler, a and became an overnight celebrity toaster, William Shakespeare’s with a national tour that included writings and over 640,000 pages of meeting President Calvin microfilm. Coolidge. The story becomes even Contents of time capsules more bizarre. In 1955, Warner often reflect the events and organi- Brothers released a cartoon enti- zations that created them. Thus, it tled One Froggy Evening which was is not surprising that the capsule based loosely on the story of Old under the US Holocaust Memorial Rip. In the cartoon, a construction contains scrolls of worker finds a frog in a time cap- remembrance signed by Holocaust sule and the frog sings and dances survivors and the capsule in the for him in a top hat. But, every Lowering the time capsule made by cornerstone of the US Supreme the Westinghouse Corporation for time the construction worker tries Court building contains legal doc- the 1939 New York World’s Fair. to show off the frog to a producer uments and memorabilia. How- in show business, the frog behaves ever, the cornerstone of the The capsule contained original like an ordinary frog. One Froggy Treasury Building in Washington, disk recordings by Melba and Evening was a big sensation but it DC, contains a locket of hair from other stars. The box was retrieved was essentially a one-hit phenom- President Andrew Jackson’s in the 1960s during renovations enon. granddaughter. Jackson remarked but was stolen before it could be Some people treat time cap- at the time (1836) that “I am plac- reburied. Who knows what has sules as a serious matter and have ing a part of my heart in this happened to this fabulous trea- expectations that the capsules will building.” sure? There are even cases of time be recovered and opened at spe- Often the contents of a recov- capsules being stolen just before cific times (the Westinghouse time ered capsule are in poor condition. they were scheduled to be buried. capsule is supposed to be opened And to make matters worse, on Perhaps the most bizarre inci- in the year 6939 while the one more than one occasion a recov- dent concerns the time capsule buried on the campus of ered time capsule was stolen placed in the cornerstone of the Oglethorpe University is sched- before the contents could be courthouse in Eastland, Texas, in uled for 8113). Others treat the examined. 1897. In 1928, 3,000 people subject in a romantic, whimsical The saddest example of this is watched as the time capsule was way and leave it to fate to deter- the time capsule buried in 1907 opened — 31 years after it had mine if and when a capsule will be behind the foundation stone of the been sealed. Inside lay a flat, dusty recovered. Viewed in the latter Gramophone Company factory in and very much alive horned toad. way, we can see all the drama, Hayes, Middlesex, England, by How it got there is not clear. The comedy, serendipity and famed opera singer Nellie Melba. toad was christened “Old Rip” tragedy of a human endeavor. HM Enduring Myths: King Harold Was Killed by an Arrow in the Eye The truth is that nobody knows how King Harold The origin for this popular belief is the well was killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 but con- known image on the Bayeux Tapestry of a man with temporary accounts of the battle mention nothing an arrow in the eye. But Harold could just as well about an arrow in the eye. have been the poor chap being cut down by the man on a horse. There are three contemporary accounts of the battle. Carmen de Hastingae Proelio (writ- ten before 1068) gives no details of Harold’s wounds. A , written in 1070 says Harold was “pierced by mortal wounds” with no mention of an arrow. The third account, Gesta Guillelmi written between 1071 and 1077, describes Harold’s wounds (which were horrific) in detail; these make no refer- ence to an arrow wound. The Bayeux Tapestry was probably embroidered in 1077, 11 years after the battle. Later accounts, starting in 1125 (59 years after the battle) do mention an arrow but by this time the Bayeux Tapestry image would have been known.

History Magazine February/March 2005 — xx xx — History Magazine February/March 2005