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75 Years Ago Today A Time Capsule Was Buried In Queens
By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 23, 2013
Modified Sep 23, 2013
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 23, 2013
Modified Sep 23, 2013
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75 years down, only 4,925 more to go! The 1939 World's Fair time capsule was buried 75 years ago today, while the fair was still being constructed. Another was buried on October 10th, 1965, and both will be dug up in 6938. But will they still be there? The man in this video below seems certain the time capsules—currently 50-feet underground—will be in tact in 6939...
Replica time capsule (via Wikipedia)
But as Roadside America points out that "some time capsule fans fret that global warming will leave this spot 30 feet underwater in 5,000 years (which is how long the capsules are supposed to remain buried). This will make them difficult to spot in the 70th century." They are, however, corrosion- and leak-proof, and surely the internet will lead the people of the future in the right direction.
Westinghouse also commissioned The Book of the Record of the Time Capsule (below), "printed on special paper in non-fading ink and hand sewn, thousands of copies of the book were distributed throughout the world to libraries, universities, monasteries, and even Tibetan lamaseries in hopes of keeping the memory of the capsule alive until 6939 AD." The book includes information on the contents, its purpose, and instructions on how to find it (including how to build a metal detector to help with the search). Since we won't be around when this thing is dug up, let's take a look again at some of what's inside:
- Fountain pen
- Alphabet block set
- A kewpie doll
- 75 types of fabrics, metals, plastics, and seeds
- Modern literature, contemporary art, and news events of the twentieth century were recorded on a microfilm, which has over ten million words and a thousand pictures
- A small microscope to view the microfilm with
- A 15-minute newsreel
- Instructions for how to make a large microfilm viewer and a motion picture projector for the newsreels
- LIFE magazine
- One dollar in change
- Pack of Camel cigarettes
- Sears Roebuck catalog
- A dictionary and an almanac
Everything included was packaged to survive the 5,000 years underground.
Some more on New York's World's Fairs can be found here.
Tagged
time capsule
queens
world's fair
history
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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