The National WWI Museum & Memorial unveils artifacts from a 100-year-old time capsule

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Copper-etched photos of World War I generals and three former presidents, perfectly preserved newspapers from the 1920s, old Kansas City Chamber of Commerce literature touting Kansas City’s status as an agricultural, railroad and mail order center – These were among the artifacts recovered earlier this year from a time capsule sealed within the walls of the Liberty Memorial a century ago.

The artifacts were unveiled publicly for the first time Wednesday at the National World War I Museum and Memorial, before an online audience joined by students from three Kansas City-area schools and history buffs from Leavenworth.

“Without further adieu, my friends, the 1924 time capsule,” museum president and CEO Matthew Naylor said as a red curtain opened to reveal a table with a few dozen items sealed more than a century ago.

Three years after groundbreaking in November 2021, Kansas City 1924 city leaders placed the time capsule in the memorial wall with instructions to open it in a century.

“Here we are, as they planned to open this capsule 100 years later,” Naylor said.

The revelation required months of effort, starting with the recovery of the time capsule.

“It was very difficult — 18 inches of concrete and limestone, so it wasn’t easy,” said chief curator Christopher Warren. “There was no door to open and pull out the time capsule.”

Next came the arduous process of opening the time capsule, involving the KCPD’s bomb and arson unit, ensuring that the nitrate film of the 1921 groundbreaking did not explode or catch fire when opened, and several dozen hours of work by the staff unpack each item carefully.

“Everything was in pristine condition, which made it easier,” Warren said. “But it is a very long and slow process. That’s why we decided not to do this in front of the public because they would get very bored with such things. …Everything was wrapped in paper and had gold seals on it, which kept everything in tip-top shape, but you actually have to take a razor blade and get under those gold seals – very meticulous. You don’t want to just tear them in half because that’s part of the objects too – the packaging and the way they were packaged back then tells us something.”

Museum staff saved three items for Wednesday’s unveiling.

One package contained a tube of seeds, another contained the copper Kansas City Star printing plate from the groundbreaking, and finally there was a letter from General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I – or so that’s what a letter was supposed to be by Pershing, who came from Laclede, Missouri.

Instead, there was a note explaining that time capsule organizers had been unable to contact Pershing, who was retired and traveling in Europe.

“Ladies and gentlemen, do you know what that is? “That’s a 100-year-old out-of-office reply,” Warren joked. “Gene. Pershing was on vacation but will respond to your email when he returns to the office.”

Cooper Ford, a sophomore at Lee’s Summit High School, was invited on stage at the unveiling of the printing plate to get an up-close look at a historic object that had not been seen in a century.

“It was kind of cool,” he said. “I thought it would be on paper or something. It was interesting to see it on metal or copper or whatever.”

The National World War I Museum and Memorial plans to display the artifacts in a basement gallery.

Also attending the unveiling were students from Lincoln College Preparatory Academy and several dozen students from Pershing Elementary School in St. Joseph, including Abiel Kokobe – a fifth-grader who was chosen to ask a question.

“I was very nervous,” said Kokobe, who asked how much the artifacts were worth. He said: “It took me about five hours to ask a question… because I was sitting at my desk at home trying to think of a good question.”

What would Ford put in the time capsule?

“I would probably put down a cell phone so they could see how much technology has changed or something,” he said.

Kokobe, a fifth-grader at Pershing Elementary School in St. Joseph, chose something more personal: “I would like to put some of my stuffed animals and some of my notes that I wrote about my childhood memories and some pictures that I drew as a child. “little child.”

Surely there should be a photo of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, right? And perhaps it will be, now that the museum has launched a campaign to create a new time capsule to coincide with the memorial’s centennial in 2026. “Entertainment is a big part of it, a big part of our lives, so we would do it. “I definitely want to have representative pieces from the Chiefs and Sporting, the Current and the Royals. But we also do it thematically – maybe something that talks about current politics, maybe something that talks about community or faith. So we take individual representative pieces that tell the story of Kansas Citians in 2026 when we actually do the time capsule.”

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