The Oldest Time Capsules — and What They Contained
The term “time capsule” was coined at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, when the Westinghouse electric company buried a large, torpedo-shaped capsule — containing everyday items, literature, and microfilm recordings of news events from the era — to be opened in 5,000 years’ time. But that capsule certainly wasn’t the first historic cache to have been deliberately left for future discovery. Here’s a look at the earliest time capsules ever discovered (or rediscovered), and what these bundles of frozen history contained.
The Wschowa Church Copper Box
What is possibly the oldest known time capsule was found during renovations at the Church of St. Stanislaus in Wschowa, Poland. In 2023, workers found a copper box that had been placed inside the church spire. The box itself was inscribed with the year 1726. Inside, conservators found four packages tied with twine, containing around 300 old coins from the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as medals, newspapers, and documents relating to the town’s history. It was clear that people had added items to the box over the decades. Whether the box itself was first placed in 1726 or after is hard to determine, but it seems likely that the Wschowa time capsule is the oldest ever discovered.
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The Faneuil Hall Weather Vane
There’s an argument to be made that the 38-pound copper grasshopper on top of Boston’s Faneuil Hall isn’t a time capsule in the true sense, but it does kind of fit the bill. In 1742, a copper grasshopper weather vane was installed atop the structure. Later, in 1768, Thomas Drowne (the son of the master craftsman who built the weather vane) placed a note inside the body of the grasshopper entitled “Food for the Grasshopper.” The note, addressed to “my brethren and fellow grasshoppers,” mentioned some of the building’s history, including an earthquake that once toppled the grasshopper from its lofty position.
After that first note was placed, people began adding coins and notes every time the weather vane was brought down for repairs, creating an inadvertent time capsule. Unfortunately, the weather vane, valued at around $300,000, was stolen in 1974. It was later found, but its historic contents were missing. The grasshopper was returned to its rightful place, with fresh notes and items added to its belly, beginning the process anew.
The Massachusetts State House Cornerstone Capsule
In 1795, American revolutionaries Samuel Adams and Paul Revere placed a time capsule beneath a cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House in Boston. It was a ceremonial affair, with 15 white horses — one for each state in the union — pulling the stone to its resting place. The time capsule contained an engraved silver plaque, a medal honoring George Washington, and coins dating to 1652. It was dug up and opened in 1855, at which time more items were added — including silver and copper coins from 1851 to 1855 and a selection of newspapers. Everything was placed in a newly built brass box and returned to the original resting place.
In 2014, builders doing work on the foundation of the State House rediscovered the time capsule. It was X-rayed and then carefully opened at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, allowing conservators to examine the long-buried contents. The artifacts were then placed in a new stainless steel time capsule — along with a mint set of 2015 U.S. coins and a silver plaque commemorating the latest unearthing and reburial — and returned to their location beneath the cornerstone.
The Cathedral of the Good Shepherd Capsule
During restoration work on the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd — Singapore’s oldest Catholic church — in 2016, workers discovered a shoebox-sized time capsule beneath a foundation stone. The capsule was placed in 1843, probably by French Catholic missionary priests. When conservators opened the 173-year-old capsule, they found a prayer booklet and newspapers from 1843, along with 24 British, French, and Spanish coins from the 18th and 19th centuries. The historic artifacts were placed on public display in the cathedral’s heritage gallery.
The Century Safe
In 1876, Anna Deihm, a publisher from New York, came up with the idea for a time capsule for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia to commemorate the nation’s 100th anniversary. Unlike earlier time capsules, this one — called the Century Safe — had a specific future opening date: the bicentennial in 1976.
A velvet-lined safe was chosen as the capsule, which was then stuffed with all manner of 19th-century relics, including a gold pen belonging to poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a book on temperance, a scroll signed by members of the 44th Congress, and portrait photographs of President Ulysses S. Grant.
The capsule was placed under the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol — and largely forgotten about. Thankfully, some diligent soul remembered the Century Safe just in time to have it restored and unlocked on schedule in 1976. At the opening ceremony, Senator Mike Mansfield said that the unveiling of the time capsule had fulfilled “the wish of a lady who sought to speak to us from the other side of a 100-year gulf.”
