Can you imagine better timing than being able to open a time capsule right around Christmas time? Officials have uncovered one that is 219 years old in Massachusetts. It was removed from the cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House while the building was being renovated.
It was buried in 1795 by Gov. Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and William Scollay, who had been a militia officer during the Revolutionary War. Think about that. Two of the three are men who we still learn about in American history and this box contains items that they thought we might be interested in.
What’s more, this is like a double time capsule. Emergency repairs needed to be made to the state house in 1855 and the time capsule was uncovered during that time. Rather than officially open it, more items were added and it was reburied.
According to the Christian Science Monitor article, “The box is thought to contain coins dated between 1652 and 1855, an engraved silver plate, newspapers, a seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, cards, and a title page from the Massachusetts Colony Records, says Meghan Kelly, a spokeswoman for the state’s Executive Office of Administration and Finance, in an e-mail to the Monitor.”
The Museum of Fine Arts was supposed to x-ray the box today and decided when it would be opened and how to handle the contents.
It will be a unique moment with our Founding Fathers speaking to us out of the past.