Time Capsules: True Stories and How to Make Your Own

On December 31, 1900, the mayor of Detroit wrote a letter. It wasn't addressed to anyone he knew: it was for whoever would be running the city a hundred years later. He put it in a box along with photos and letters from 56 other residents, and the box was sealed. On December 31, 2000, someone opened it and read those words for the first time.

That's what a time capsule is: a message we leave today for someone we don't know yet, or who doesn't even exist yet. A way of saying "this is who we were, this is what we thought, this is what mattered to us."

The phrase "time capsule" is fairly recent: it came into use in 1938. But the idea is as old as the wish that someone, someday, will read us. In this article we share some of the most fascinating time capsules in history, why so many get lost, and how you can make your own, today.

Five real time capsules

Detroit's century box (1900 → 2000)

Photos and letters from 56 prominent residents, plus Mayor William C. Maybury's letter to his successor in the year 2000. It was opened exactly as planned, on December 31, 2000, in a ceremony led by the sitting mayor. It's the perfect example of a capsule that actually made it.

The Otta box, Norway (1912 → 2012)

In 1912, a Norwegian town sealed a box marked "may be opened in 2012." A hundred years later they opened it in a ceremony… and found notebooks, newspaper clippings and town council papers. The crowd was disappointed. The lesson: what moves people a hundred years later isn't paperwork, it's personal stories.

The Arlington Cemetery box (1915 → 2020)

In 1915 the cornerstone of the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery was laid with a copper box inside. It was opened 105 years later: it held copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, a small flag, coins, stamps, local newspapers and a signed photo of President Woodrow Wilson.

The CCSS capsule, Costa Rica (2016 → 2041)

Here in Costa Rica, where Akashiica was born, the CCSS (Costa Rica's Social Security Entity) sealed a capsule on November 3, 2016, to be opened on its centennial. Inside are a health insurance card, health statistics, photos, newspapers, a syringe, a blood pressure monitor, supermarket price lists, receipts, bills and coins, and a list of popular songs from the time. There are also messages and a letter. In 25 years, someone will discover what groceries cost in 2016.

The ones waiting thousands of years

Some capsules were designed for a future almost impossible to imagine:

• The Westinghouse Time Capsules in New York, buried about 50 feet underground in 1938 and 1965. They're scheduled to be opened in the year 6939. They hold a fountain pen, magazines, seeds of wheat, corn and rice, and a microfilm catalog.
• The Crypt of Civilization at Oglethorpe University in Georgia: an entire room sealed in 1940, meant to be opened in the year 8113. It contains microfilm of more than 800 books, voice recordings, a typewriter and even a Donald Duck toy.

It sounds far-fetched, but it's true: both are well documented and have official opening dates.

Why so many time capsules never arrive

Here comes the uncomfortable part. According to the International Time Capsule Society (founded in 1990), most time capsules buried over the last half century are lost. Some real cases:

• Nobody remembered where it was. In Corona, California, 17 capsules from the 1930s were lost. People tried to recover them in 1986 and couldn't find them.
• Nobody remembered it existed. In 1939, at MIT, a capsule was placed under an 18-ton magnet, to be opened 50 years later. Nobody remembered in time.
• It was stolen. In 1976, a capsule holding the signatures of millions of Americans was stolen from a parked van. It was never found.
• It was never found. The cornerstone of the US Capitol, laid by George Washington in 1793, still hasn't been located.

The problem is almost never the contents: it's that nobody was left in charge of remembering where the capsule was, when to open it, and who to give it to. A buried box depends on someone, decades later, remembering.

What to put in your time capsule

The Otta box left us the best clue: nobody gets emotional about official paperwork a hundred years later. What moves people is the personal. Some ideas:

1. A letter to your future self. What worries you today, what you dream about, what you hope to have achieved. Rereading it ten years later is quite a trip.
2. A letter to your children or grandchildren. For the day they turn 18, graduate or get married.
3. Your voice. A recording telling a family story, singing a song, or just saying "I love you." A voice is the first thing we forget.
4. The family recipe. With the tricks that never get written down.
5. Photos of an ordinary day. Your table, your street, your phone. It's the everyday stuff that surprises people most down the line.
6. Your songs of the year. The CCSS did it: they saved a list of popular songs.
7. A prediction. What you think the world will be like when it's opened. It's the most fun part to reread.

And most importantly: decide when it opens and who receives it. Without that, any capsule risks ending up like the ones in Corona.

If you'd like ideas for writing to your kids, we have a guide: how to write letters to your children for the future.

The time capsule that actually arrives

There's something beautiful about a metal box in the ground, but it comes with three problems: they get lost, they get forgotten, and nobody knows exactly who to deliver them to. Akashiica was created to solve exactly that.

It's a digital time capsule:

• Store whatever you want: letters, recordings of your voice, photos and documents.
• Choose the date: the day your daughter turns 18, your 25th anniversary, or January 1, 2036 (scheduled deliveries are part of the Premium plan).
• Choose who receives it: it goes straight to that person, without anyone having to remember to "dig it up."
• It's protected: everything is stored with AES-256 encryption and two-step verification.

No shovel, no digging. Just something you want to say, arriving right on time.

Create your first time capsule for free on Akashiica. And if you're up for it, tell us on social media with #MyTimeCapsule who you wrote it for (the contents stay between you and that person).

Sources

• Time capsule — Wikipedia: origin of the term (1938), International Time Capsule Society (1990), Detroit 1900–2000, Otta 1912–2012.
• Westinghouse Time Capsules — Wikipedia: 1938 and 1965 capsules, to be opened in 6939.
• Crypt of Civilization — Oglethorpe University: sealed in 1940, to be opened in 8113.
• Most Wanted Time Capsules — Oglethorpe University: Corona, MIT, the 1976 theft, the Capitol cornerstone.
• Time flies or is stolen — Tampa Bay Times (1991): most capsules from the past 50 years are lost.
• CCSS stores institutional memories in a capsule — El Mundo CR (in Spanish): capsule sealed on November 3, 2016.
• Capsule opened 105 years later — Expreso (in Spanish): the Arlington box, 1915.