Sam Adams didn’t include any beer in the time capsule he buried with Paul Revere in 1795, but there were other goodies. Museum conservators opened the capsule yesterday–very gently. (It took four hours, according to CNN.) The time capsule–discovered in a cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House during a recent repair–was filled with newspapers and money. (Some things never change: money and news fill our days.) It’s safe to say that the one coin dating to 1652 is worth more today than the value printed on it!
The capsule wasn’t a treasure chest in the way most people imagine it. America was not yet the land of the Big Gulp, the Big Mac, and the big screen TV. This capsule measures just 5.5 inches by 7.5 inches–and was only an inch and a half tall. A conservator believed that the newspapers in the capsule were so well preserved perhaps due to all the copper coins that were in it–copper combats fungus, which could destroy the paper. After the contents–including a silver plate possibly made by Revere himself–are displayed for a time at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the plan is to replace the capsule in the cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House where it was found.
‘Now I’m excited’ and conservator Pam lifts a little off her seat in excitement #bostontimecapsule pic.twitter.com/Dn1WasKQAi
— Alan Yuhas (@AlanYuhas) January 6, 2015
