220 years ago, founding-fathers and revolutionaries Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and William Scollay placed a time capsule beneath a cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House. In December of 2014, water marks found near the cornerstone earlier in the year were examined, the result of which accidentally revealed the centuries-old box hidden in plaster. It took the Museum of Fine Art's Pam Hatchfield seven hours to free the delicate piece of history from its hiding place. The capsule then required another four hours to open the lid. But once the MFA's head of objects conservation, Hatchfield, saw what was contained, she knew that those painstaking hours were worth it.
Liberty Intercept Blog
Crypt of Civilization Time Capsule
Posted by Greg Spitz on Nov 2, 2016 10:34:01 AM
Under seven feet of stone, in the foundation of Phoebe Hearst Memorial Hall, lies a small pool-sized room filled with all of humanity's knowledge prior to 1940. The room is sealed shut with a welded stainless steel door which is not to be opened until 8113 A.D. This room is the Crypt of Civilization.
Read MoreTopics: time capsule
Boston Time Capsule Contents Exhibit - MFA
Posted by Elaine Spitz on Apr 11, 2015 10:29:00 AM
We continue our coverage of the Boston Time Capsule with updates from our recent visit to the Museum of Fine Arts, exhibit showing what was discovered inside the second Capsule recovered. The interest in this Time Capsule has been highly documented by many world news organizations because two well-known American patriots, Paul Revere and Sam Adams, were involved.
Topics: boston, corrosion intercept, MFA, corrosion prevention, time capsule, archival
1795 Boston Time Capsule Opened
Posted by Joe Spitz on Jan 8, 2015 6:10:00 PM
220 years ago, founding-fathers and revolutionaries Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and William Scollay placed a time capsule beneath a cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House. In December of 2014, water marks found near the cornerstone earlier in the year were examined, the result of which accidentally revealed the centuries-old box hidden in plaster. It took the Museum of Fine Art's Pam Hatchfield seven hours to free the delicate piece of history from its hiding place. The capsule then required another four hours to open the lid. But once the MFA's head of objects conservation, Hatchfield, saw what was contained, she knew that those painstaking hours were worth it.
Topics: boston, corrosion intercept, MFA, time capsule
Boston's Time Capsule - Contents Preserved with Copper: Part Two
Posted by Elaine Spitz on Nov 3, 2014 1:40:00 PM
Read part one
The objects inside the 1901 time capsule found in a wooden lion sculpture at the historic state house in Boston were finally examined after having been brought to a climate-controlled room. Members of the Bostonian Historical Society were on hand to inspect the contents with the delicacy, scrutiny and context only historians can provide. Brian LeMay, President of the BHS, told NPR’s Audie Cornish, “The striking thing about the contents is how good condition they seem to be. So the stuff inside of it seems to be brand-new. It's as if it was put in there yesterday and has somehow reached us from a century ago in exactly the same condition that it is now."
Topics: anti-microbial, anti-corrosion, time capsule, archival
Boston's Time Capsule - Packaged in Copper for Preservation
Posted by Joe Spitz on Oct 20, 2014 9:56:00 AM
We can read history books and watch documentaries to help us understand our heritage, but every now and then something turns up which helps us comprehend what was important to a past culture. A 113-year-old time capsule was recently discovered in an outdoor statue on the property of Boston’s Old State House. People watching this story are anxious to know what is in the time capsule, so as to understand what was important to the Boston community in 1901. Personally, I want to know how well kept these time capsule contents appear. The articles were placed in a sealed copper box which was then stored inside the lion’s head statue displayed outdoors in an atmospheric climate with four distinct seasons and located on a turbulent ocean. I see this as a magnificent study in copper as a packaging protector.
Topics: Copper, anti-microbial, time capsule, packaging, archival