At 10:12 AM 3/7/96 -0500, you wrote:
>>The Western Reserve Historical Society here in Cleveland (216) 721-5722
>>recently
>>opened four time capsules. The oldest was 100 years old.
>>
>>Sharyn Horowitz, The Health Museum
>>[log in to unmask]
>
>
>What happens to time capsules after they have been opened?  I assume the
>items are placed on public display for some period.   Are the capsules then
>re-buried?
>
>
>
>Fredric J. Raab
>Interactive Media for Museums
>Cambridge, MA, USA
>[log in to unmask]
>http://www.tiac.net/users/fraab
>
The time capsules here were never really "buried." When the women of 1896
Cleveland decided to produce a time capsule for the people of 1996
Cleveland, they put their capsule (which, by the way, they referred to as a
"casket"} together (metal, asbestos lined, sealed with rivets) and then
deposited this casket with the Western Reserve Historical Society. It
essentially was "buried" in our collections. This was a centennial casket,
designed to be opened in 1996, the year of the city's Bicentennial. Other
caskets were put together at 25 year intervals (1921, 1946, 1971), also
meant to be opened in 1996.

The materials have been put into an exhibit called "A Century of
Safekeeping." The exhibit will be up through the end of 1996. Then the
materials will be kept together in our collections, administered by the
curatorial department. They won't be crammed back into the caskets, but the
original caskets will be retained as part of the time capsule collections.

Various groups are putting together new capsules for the people of 2046 and
2096 Cleveland. These will be put on deposit here as well and scheduled for
opening in the appropriate years. We're trying to monitor what kinds of
materials are put into the new capsules (no plastics, etc.). As part of a
Family History Fair in May we're encouraging families and children to bring
things to the society for inclusion in the "capsule," but we'll be thinking
of these new kinds of time capsules more in the terms of sealed, restricted
collections rather than physical containers "buried" in the ground.

For more information, contact Daine King, our curator in charge of the
caskets, here at the Western Reserve Historial Society:

10825 East Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44106
216 721-5722
my extension is 251, Diane's is 244