100-Year-Old Kansas City Time Capsule Artifacts Unveiled at World War I Museum – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

(CNN) — The National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, unveiled an unearthed centuries-old time capsule Wednesday, revealing a wealth of relics, artifacts and documents from the early 20th century.

In 1924, historians and museum curators joined forces to bury a time capsule at the Liberty Memorial, which would open in 100 years. The objects celebrated the victory in the First World War and gave an insight into life at the time.

In the 1920s, a group of prominent Kansas City residents formed the Liberty Memorial Association to create a monument honoring those who served in World War I.

At that time, the association held a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Liberty Memorial. Approximately 100,000 people gathered as planes circled overhead, pigeons were released and patriotic music rang in the ears of participants.

The time capsule was placed deep within the limestone concrete of the Liberty Memorial Tower. Now, 100 years later, the museum held a ceremony detailing what was housed inside. The capsule was recovered this summer.

“So here we are, as they planned to open this capsule 100 years later. Isn’t that great? Who would have thought we would be here,” said Matthew Naylor, the museum’s president and CEO.

A complicated retrieval process

According to Christopher Warren, chief curator of the National WWI Museum and Memorial, excavating the capsule was no easy task for museum curators and staff.

Workers had to drill into the wall of the Liberty Memorial Tower to retrieve the capsule. Additionally, the capsule was not in the expected location, requiring the museum’s facilities engineer to search through 18 inches of limestone and concrete to locate it.

During the retrieval, the staff encountered another problem. The board of trustees knew that the capsule contained a potentially flammable nitrate film dating back to the 1920s.

Naylor announced at the start of the ceremony that the museum had an official list of the capsule’s contents, which would allow them to determine that the film was made with nitrates.

Employees feared that the film would burn if it came into contact with oxygen if stored improperly. With the help of the Kansas City Police Department’s Bomb and Arson Unit, the capsule was successfully opened without any explosions occurring.

The capsule was opened ahead of Wednesday’s unveiling ceremony to assess the condition of the objects inside. Fortunately, the contents remained intact and nothing was damaged by water or mold.

Centuries-old relics revealed

Curators and museum staff spent eight hours carefully opening the inner packaging using tweezers and small razor blades to protect the contents of the artifacts inside as well as the packaging.

Warren said there were newspapers, a copy of the Constitution, a Bible and a copy of America’s April 1917 declaration of war.

Three objects remained to be opened live by the museum curator at the unveiling ceremony. Among the packed audience were students from surrounding schools.

The first of these artifacts was a seed tube that represented Kansas City’s agricultural community.

Next, a tube of letters was unveiled, consisting of congratulatory statements from Allied war commanders who were present at the groundbreaking of the Liberty Memorial in 1921. Another letter was written by President Calvin Coolidge.

The final item is a printing plate from the Kansas City Star dated November 1, 1921. The headline that day described 60,000 people marching along a three-mile parade route.

Capsule had a variety of signatures

What proved unique to Warren and the museum staff were the signatures engraved on the inside of the copper box. The museum conducted thorough research into the individuals’ identities and did not find out who they were.

However, they concluded that the signatures corresponded to people involved in the construction of the time capsule.

“It shows that it wasn’t just the committee that put together the items for the time capsule,” Warren said.

“It was the whole community, the workers who actually built the time capsule and welded the lid on it, who wanted to be a part of this celebration.”

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