One hundred years from Thursday 17th October 2013, Harvard anthropologists will be able to open a 100-year-old time capsule. In the time capsule is: a used Post-it pad, a first-generation iPhone, Wednesday 16th October’s edition of ‘The Crimson,’ and a can of Coke Zero. The installment of this time capsule took place at the Tozzer Library entrance at Harvard, in attendance by 50 affiliates including Michael D. Smith, (Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences) and Peter V. Marsden (Dean of Social Science).
In the state of Florida, Leon County recently held a ceremony sealing its Viva Florida Time Capsule. Containing more than 130 items (reflecting life in the region), the seal will stay closed for 110 years. The reason behind this time capsule is due to the state’s 2013 Viva Florida celebration that honors the 500th anniversary of when Juan Ponce de Leon came to Florida. According to Nick Maddox, County Commission Chairman, “the committee has done a tremendous job in selecting items and materials that reflect the uniqueness of our community. Many of us might not be around to open the time capsule in 2123, but I know we’re all looking forward to sealing it on October 25.”
Another time capsule was set up in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Approximately 25 students were invited into their high school auditorium. There, they found large, yellow-decorated envelopes on a table at the front of the room in the form of time capsules which they were asked to open. This was an exciting event for the fifth grade class’ room mother at North Dickinson Elementary School, Linda Cavanagh. She explained, “one of the reasons I did this, was because I want you, for the rest of your lives, to dream, to set goals for yourself, to always forge ahead,” I just want to show you, that at one time, you had a lot of dreams, and I hope you never let go of that, and that you keep making new ones and keep moving ahead.”
According to Wikipedia, time capsules are “historic cache[s] of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists or historians. [They] are sometimes created and buried during celebrations such as a World’s Fair, a cornerstone laying for a building or at other events.”