Crypt of Civilization

Crypt of Civilization interior contents

The Crypt of Civilization is a sealed airtight chamber built between 1937 and 1940 at the Oglethorpe University in Brookhaven, Georgia, in Metro Atlanta. The 2,000-cubic-foot (57 m³) room contains numerous 20th century artifacts and documents, and is designed for opening in 8113 AD. Items placed in the airtight vault were selected to show how we live and to what degree of scientific knowledge we had accumulated to the year 1939. It also contained classic literature and religious material. There was also photography included and sound recordings. It is the first successful genuine attempt at making a time capsule of cultural objects of modern times for people centuries in the future. Thornwell Jacobs was the instigator of the project and was motivated to do it from the lack of historical information available from the opening of Egyptian pyramids.

Beginnings

Thornwell Jacobs (1877–1956), referred to as Father of Modern Time Capsules, claims to be the first in modern times to visualize the concept of purposely safeguarding common man-made objects of everyday use for future generations by placing these objects in a repository that is impenetrable for centuries. Jacobs's inspiration for the project was sparked by the Egyptian pyramid and tomb openings in the 1920s. He was amazed by the lack of historical information available from these ancient civilizations and imagined having a current events story of the customs of human life from the beginning to the 1930s modern culture. Although the claim that 4241 BC as the earliest known historical recorded fixed date has been discredited since Jacobs' claim, he determined that 6,177 years had taken place between when the Egyptian calendar had been traditionally set for a beginning as 4241 B.C. and the present year of 1936 A.D. This figure served as the rationale for setting the revealing of the contents within the crypt for 8113 A.D., as it was 6,177 years ahead making the current time as being midway between the two.

Jacobs’s Crypt of Civilization intrigued America and was duplicated by many others. In the mid-1930s, George Edward Pendray, a public relations executive for the Westinghouse Electric Company, was given an assignment to come up with an public inspirational ceremony for the 1939–40 New York World's Fair to advertise the existence of the company's repository vault as something unique and never known before. Pendray, also an amateur rocketeer, suggested burying a time capsule, a sealed rocket-shaped vessel made of a metal alloy called "cupaloy". The Westinghouse time capsule is a 7-foot-long (2.1 m) rocket-shaped tube with a metal exterior that encapsulated articles in a Pyrex inner tube. Pendray’s project was originally named a time bomb to represent when it was due explode in revealing to the inhabitants on Earth of the time, but the name was later changed to something more diplomatic because of wars around the world at the time. Pendray chose the name "time capsule" as it encapsulated within a container man-made objects and was designated to be opened in 61 centuries.

Construction

The Crypt of Civilization airtight impenetrable chamber room is placed on bedrock of Appalachian granite that is located in the basement foundation of the Phoebe Hearst Memorial Hall, a Gothic-style academic building at the Oglethorpe University. The room was converted from a swimming pool from 1937 to 1940, and the walls of the crypt were lined with plates of enamel nested and covered in tar material. The room is 20 feet (6.1 m) long, 10 feet (3.0 m) high and 10 feet (3.0 m) wide. The chamber is under a stone roof 7 feet (2.1 m) thick and sits on a stone floor 3 feet (0.91 m) thick. It was sealed with its stainless steel entryway bonded permanently in place by welding after the oxygen was removed and replaced with non de-compositing hydrogen gas. Thomas Kimmwood Peters (1884–1973) supervised construction and served as its archivist.

Artifacts

The Bureau of Standards gave professional technical assistance for the artifacts and the building of the crypt room itself. The bureau also recommended how artifacts should be stored. Many artifacts are put into stainless steel holders with glass interiors and filled with an inert gas to prevent aging, a concept later carried over to the Westinghouse Time Capsules. The chamber resembles a room of an ancient Egyptian pyramid with antiques placed on shelves and the floor. The walls are lined with plaques containing illustrations by George L. Carlson in the form of pictographs that show the history of intelligence and human knowledge that tells in detail how to access the treasure trove of artifacts placed in the permanent vault for the population of the future. Many of the artifacts for the time vault Crypt of Civilization were donated, including contributions from the King of Sweden Gustav V and Eastman Kodak. Suggestions for items that were accepted for the crypt chamber room included a mechanical pencil, a fountain pen and a can opener.

Included in the crypt are airtight canisters containing microfilm on cellulose acetate film containing more than 800 standard books of literature, including the Christian Bible, the Quran, Homer's Song of Ilium, and Dante's Divine Comedy. There are over 600,000 pages included. A backup metal film system is also in the time capsule crypt. An original manuscript Gone With the Wind film was donated by movie producer David O. Selznick to be included as well. The crypt contains voice recordings of past historical personalities and celebrities such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Mussolini. The sounds of Popeye the Sailor Man and a professional pig caller were also included. Jacobs addressed those who will open the crypt in AD 8113 in a note hoping for future efforts for preservation, pointing out that the world had been engaged in preserving the human civilization for future generations, and in this crypt it has been presented to these people."

Peters placed electric microfilm readers and picture projectors in the time capsule chamber to enable viewing and listening to these recordings. He provided an electric generator powered by a windmill to run the device, as well as a magnifier to be able to see the microfilm records in case electricity is not in general use by the 82nd century. Peters even included some current-day scientific instruments. Unusual artifacts included are seed samples, dental floss, a woman's purse with typical contents, some Artie Shaw records, an electric toaster, a pacifier, a bottle of Budweiser beer encapsulated in special material for preservation, a manual typewriter, an electronic radio, a store cash register, an office adding machine, and children's toys like Lincoln Logs, and a plastic Donald Duck, the Lone Ranger, and a Black doll. Also placed in the crypt were steel engraved panels of the Atlanta Journal newspaper showing articles of World War II.

Promotion

Jacobs spoke on nationwide radio on the National Broadcasting Company in New York in 1937 to promote the crypt. At the Oglethorpe University campus there was a dedication ceremony led by David Sarnoff of Radio Corporation of America occurred in May, 1938. Peters included segments of Paramount newsreel films of this occasion in the crypt and film he had created about the crypt entitled The Stream of Knowledge that was published in 1938. An intriguing element of the promotion was a metal card issued by the Oglethorpe University archivist that the public could purchase for a dollar. The card set forth that in consideration for the one dollar gift any future descendant of the contributor of the 187th generation will be admitted upon presentation to the opening of the crypt at noon on Thursday, May 28, 8113.

Jacobs and Peters permanently closed off the crypt in a ceremony that was broadcast by Atlanta's WSB radio May 25, 1940. Notable figures present at the ceremony included Dr. Amos Ettinger, Dr. M. D. Collins, Mayor William B. Hartsfield, Ivan Allen, Jr., Clark Howell, Governor Eurith D. Rivers, and Postmaster General James Farley. The door was welded shut, and a plaque was fused to it with a message to the people of 8113 A.D. from Jacobs. Peters included inside the time vault a machine called a Language Integrator that was a type of Mutoscope, a hand operated movie projector with sound that taught English. This was a type of Rosetta stone and another concept carried forward to the Westinghouse Time Capsules. Guinness World Records says this time conservancy repository at Oglethorpe University was the first genuine attempt that successfully preserved permanently a record of 20th century cultural objects for any future occupants of Earth or visitors that may come to the unoccupied planet.

After sealing

There have been numerous retrospectives on the time capsule Crypt of Civilization by the Associated Press, ABC, NBC, CNN, NPR, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, New York Times newspaper and others since the seal date. After the sealing of the crypt in 1940, media organizations continued to re-visit the crypt in news stories every decade. The "ITCS", an international society club for keeping track of time capsules worldwide, was made at Oglethorpe University on the fiftieth anniversary (1990) of the official closing of the vault room at Crypt of Civilization. The consortium studies time capsules created worldwide, of what types, and their locations. The Crypt of Civilization regained prominence from 1999 to 2001 in the millennium observances. It was featured on television and covered by numerous newspapers. The crypt was presented and highlighted in an episode of Life After People: The Series on the History Channel.

See also

• Georgia Guidestones
• International Time Capsule Society
• Time capsule
• List of time capsules
• Westinghouse Time Capsules
• Timeline of Installs and Open dates

Sources

• Dean, Norman L. (2010). The Man Behind the Bottle. Norman L. Dean. ISBN 9781450054041.
• Jarvis, William E. (2002). Time Capsules: Cultural History. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1261-5.

• Seibert, Patricia (2002). We Were Here / A Short History of Time Capsules. Millbrook Press. ISBN 9780761304234.

External links

• Official Website
• Complete list of contents
• Article on the Crypt and its contents
• Popular Science article from December 1938