KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The longer it lay there, the more explosive it became.
For one hundred years, a metal box sat buried in concrete and limestone beneath the 217-foot-tall Liberty Memorial Tower at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City.
To unearth and remove the box in October 2024, museum officials had to call in the Kansas City Police Department bomb squad.
Why?
Among the items officials knew were buried in the 1924 capsule was a roll of volatile nitrate film that paid homage to the thriving era of silent cinema. Thankfully, officials were able to retrieve the newsreel—and the other contents of the box—without any damage.
Other items in the time capsule were a vial of seeds, a Bible, a copy of the US Constitution, and a copy of the American declaration of war from April 1917. Letters from President Calvin Coolidge and five Allied generals also were included.
Plans are underway to bury a new time capsule in 2026. Sports-related gear (this is Kansas City Chiefs football territory, after all) likely will make the cut, says museum curator Christopher Warren. What else will be buried is anybody’s guess.
Warren says he and museum staff have been pondering including an object that somehow recognizes today’s fraught political climate while encouraging folks to unite as a community.
“One hundred years from now, people are going to say, ‘Oh, wow, these people couldn’t
get along’,” Warren says. “Hopefully, by then, we’ll be getting along better.”
More than a century on, we are still living in the world created by World War I, Warren explains. A major theme taught to museum visitors is that actions have consequences, for better or worse.
“History is a million different decisions made by people that all contributed to one
path,” Warren says. “The decisions we make today as a society can affect the world in so many ways. The time capsule can encourage people to be more thoughtful.”
The public can submit ideas for time capsule items online via the museum’s website at theworldwar.org.
Nothing explosive, please.
