Oct. 17 (UPI) — The National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, opened a 100-year-old time capsule containing newspapers and a letter from President Calvin Coolidge.
The time capsule was buried in the museum’s Liberty Memorial Tower in 1924, with instructions to open the container in 100 years. The time capsule commemorated the dedication of the monument.
The museum removed the time capsule from the monument over the summer, a process complicated by 18 inches of limestone and concrete.
Officials said the extraction was also complicated by the presence of nitrate film in the container, which is known to be highly flammable.
The contents of the time capsule were revealed during a ceremony on Wednesday. Items included a copy of the U.S. Constitution, newspapers, a Bible and a copy of the U.S. declaration of war from April 1917.
The box also contained letters, including one from President Calvin Coolidge and several from Allied commanders who attended the 1921 Liberty Memorial groundbreaking ceremony.
The time capsule also contained a November 1, 1921 printing plate of the Kansas City Star.
The copper box contained several engraved signatures of people whom officials could not identify but were believed to be members of the team that assembled the time capsule.
