{"id":30803,"date":"2024-01-10T12:24:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T17:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=30803"},"modified":"2024-01-10T13:08:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T18:08:20","slug":"time-capsules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/time-capsules\/","title":{"rendered":"Campus Time Capsules Are Blasts from the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From contemporary ephemera to a missive from Ezra himself, the historic containers are relics of an earlier Cornell<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Wilensky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hill is replete with connections to the past, from stately architecture to numerous statues, portraits, and more. But over the course of the University\u2019s history, Cornellians have also created more intentional messages to their future counterparts, by stashing material in time capsules and cornerstone boxes enclosed in building foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Observes Cornell history expert Corey Earle \u201907: \u201cBoth time capsules and cornerstone boxes tell you something about what the people creating it thought was important for future generations to understand or preserve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Klarman Hall time capsule, enclosed for a half-century\u2019s internment. (Cornell University)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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What\u2019s the difference between the two? A cornerstone box, Earle explains, is typically filled with ephemera and ceremoniously sealed during the building\u2019s dedication\u2014with no expectation that it will be opened as long as the structure stands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A time capsule, on the other hand, has a specific \u201copen by\u201d date, with the contents selected to preserve a glimpse of contemporary life for future generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arguably the University’s most famous example of the former: at the 1873 cornerstone-laying ceremony for Sage Hall, Ezra Cornell noted that he\u2019d placed a letter in its cornerstone box that \u201ctells the reasons for the failure of the [University] experiment,\u201d if it should ever fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For nearly 125 years, no one knew what the letter said. Many believed it was likely about the University\u2019s ambitious coeducational experiment, as Sage was constructed as the first on-campus residence for women. But in 1997, during an extensive renovation, the box was found and opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the letter<\/a>, addressed \u201cTo the Coming man & woman,\u201d Cornell wrote that \u201cthe principle [sic] danger … to be encountered by the friends of education, and by all lovers of true liberty is that which may arise from sectarian strife.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"The
Sage\u2019s cornerstone box as found in 1997. (Rare and Manuscript Collections)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Cornell continued: \u201cFrom these halls, sectarianism must be forever excluded, all <\/em>students must be left free to worship God, as their concience [sic] shall dictate, and all persons<\/em> of any creed or all creeds must find free and easy access, and a hearty and equal welcome \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The box and its contents now reside in the University Archives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new box was placed in the Sage foundation in late 1997 with a collection of then-current Johnson School ephemera\u2014including a Hewlett Packard calculator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"laying
Guests in period finery observe the laying of McGraw Hall’s cornerstone. (Rare and Manuscript Collections)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>
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While cornerstone boxes are known to exist in many older campus buildings, Earle says, the contents are often unknown, \u201cpartly because there isn\u2019t always a record of the specific items that were deposited.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such box was found in the late 1980s when Roberts Hall was demolished, and another in March 2023 during the Thurston Hall expansion on the Engineering Quad.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Another, from the Statler Hall cornerstone laying<\/a> in 1949, was returned to the University by a contractor\u2019s family decades after the building was renovated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The oldest may be the one that still resides within the cornerstone of McGraw Hall, which was laid during a ceremony as part of Cornell\u2019s first Commencement in 1869. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2006, a forgotten box was found by masons replacing stonework atop the Baldwin Memorial Stairway, which connects the Delta Phi fraternity house (Llenroc) to University Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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