By Amanda Hoover, news correspondent
Last week, the Bostonian Society opened the long-rumored 113-year-old State House time capsule and confronted a box full of untouched, century-old relics.
The items, secured in the head of a copper lion statue in 1901, sat perched atop the Old State House unknown for the last century as countless tourists visited the historic building and walked the Freedom Trail. Despite 113 years of enduring harsh wind, snow and rain, the items are in impressive condition.
“Our archivist was really surprised by how good the condition was. The only thing she’s done so far is carefully take everything out of the box,” Heather Leet, the director of development at the Bostonian Society, Boston’s historical society and the operator of the Old State House Museum, said. “Her initial assessment is that they’re in good condition and not going to need much done to them.”
The discovery of the time capsule came last month when the iconic lion and unicorn statues were taken down for restoration. ABoston Globe article from 1901 rumored the capsule’s existence, but it was not confirmed until Monday, Sept. 22, when the airtight box was removed from the lion.
That same article provided a list of contents which included photographs of the mayor and other elected officials, a Boston map and McKinley and Roosevelt campaign buttons, as well as letters and newspaper clippings.
According to Victoria Cain, a professor of history at Northeastern University who authored the 2014 book “Life on Display: Revolutionizing Museums of Science and Nature in the United States,” the inclusion of officials’ photographs, letters from readers and campaign buttons showed a reverence for politicians and political symbols that is unlikely to exist today.
“Those aren’t the kinds of things we would consider putting in a time capsule now,” Cain said. “History and its representations have changed over time.”
Archivists also uncovered a piece of wood from the previous lion statue that ruled over the Old State House from the 1880s until 1901, when the copper statues replaced the originals.
“There’s a lot of urban legends swirling around the Bostonian Society about what happened to the original lion and unicorn,” Leet said. “You can see that this wood is rotting. We know they were in really bad shape.”
One urban legend speculates that the builders of the lion and unicorn took the wooden statues and placed them in gardens, but no evidence shows this to be true. The piece of wood from the lion is the first anyone has seen of the old statues in 100 years.
Another artifact was a red book, whose presence in the capsule has not yet been explained in full.
“We’re not sure what the story is. It’s the ‘Foreign Relations of the US in 1896,’ so five years previous [to the time capsule],” Leet said. “We’re not sure why it was put in there. We think it possibly was put in just to fill space. Everything was really tightly packed.”
For now, the letters remain sealed. Archivists worry that they could deteriorate easily and have arranged to steam them open using a humidity chamber in coming weeks, working carefully to preserve the words of previous Bostonians so that visitors to the museum can learn about life in 1901 firsthand.
Leet said the Bostonian Society hopes to have the items on display in the Old State House Museum by mid-November. Whether or not the exhibit will draw more visitors to the museum, however, is undetermined.
“It will take a lot of really inventive, innovating curating to make this particularly interesting,” Cain said. “In part, visually, it’s just not that cool. A nail from the Old South Church isn’t visually gripping. In the future, they may consider putting some finds in that they think are particularly resonant and representative, but also exciting.”
The Bostonian Society is working to fill a new time capsule and place it in the head of the lion once sculptor Robert Shure of Skylight Studios in Woburn finishes the restoration process. They will place the new items in a titanium time capsule engineered by Burlington-based company RTI International Metals, Inc. and print only on acid-free paper to ensure that the contents remain protected for future generations who will come face to face with the items in the 22nd century.
“It’s a very different way of decision-making,” Cain said. “I can tell you that curators at the Old State House were not soliciting those kinds of opinions from the masses.”
The titanium capsule will house a donated 2013 Boston Marathon metal, as well as a photo and letter by current Mayor Martin J.Walsh. The other contents remain open to suggestion.
“It is extraordinary that something with such rich history was hidden in plain sight,” Walsh said in an email to the News. “It is an honor to be able to include a memento of my own, so that years and years from now, my letter will be read and future Boston residents will know what a dynamic and energized city Boston was in 2014.”
Jason Dack, 22, a senior business major at Northeastern, thinks that a baseball from the Red Sox’s 2013 World Series championship game would make an intriguing find 100 years from now.
“I think it’s important because right after the marathon bombing happened, the Red Sox had just started their season and it really took a toll on them,” Dack said. “That championship was really important for the city.”
The Bostonian Society will continue to take suggestions for contents until Oct. 30 via their Facebook, email or Twitter @Bostoniansoc using the hashtag #LionandUnicorn.
Photo courtesy Bostonian Society
